


Through The Well

by Kaytla



Series: Through The Well [1]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-06-22
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2017-10-20 15:52:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 41,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/214415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaytla/pseuds/Kaytla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inuyasha, grieving after losing Kagome, tries to jump back in the well to follow her, but ends up somewhere he never expected...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Laying at the bottom of the Bone Eater’s Well, feeling a cold numbness seeping in from head to toe, Inuyasha stared dejectedly up at the small square of cloudless blue sky above him. It was a beautiful day, just on the right side of being too hot; at any other time, even he might have enjoyed the warm, balmy air with its frequent cool breezes and the absolute peace and quiet around him.

But not now.

The quiet meant failure. The dying magic of the well had allowed him to sink into the weightless void between time itself just long enough for him to believe it may have worked, then spat him cruelly back out into his own era. He couldn’t hear the distant rumble of those awful _cars_ from Kagome’s time, or smell the stink of the city she lived in. The air was clean, even at the bottom of the well, only dust filling his nose and the soft song of birds reaching his ears.

Inuyasha closed his eyes tiredly. Fate had a cruel way of showing gratitude, it seemed. At great physical and emotional cost, he’d defeated Naraku, thereby freeing the world from his evil. As a result of his efforts, and Kagome's final wish on the Jewel, the well activated one last time, just long enough to send them back – forward? – to Kagome’s era and bring him back alone.

Despite all he’d been through, he still couldn’t catch a break. There was no happy ending for him.

It was always the same. Fate conspired against a worthless hanyou, disregarded him like everyone else, and thwarted his chances to be happy. Took his mother away from him after a wasting sickness, and allowed Kikyo to die at Naraku’s hands. Then brought Kagome back to this world just, it seemed, to destroy the Jewel... and take his heart with her when she was returned to her own time, her mission complete.

Dimly, he was aware he should feel grateful. Of all of them, he was the only one who got to see Kagome one last time after she disappeared into the void leading to the netherworld, to see with his own eyes that she was safe and home. That she was relieved to see her family again, and know it was where she really belonged.

But it was hard to feel that way when he'd left his heart, his hope for happiness, there with her.

He opened his eyes again and stared listlessly upwards. He couldn't hear his friends up there; maybe they'd figured it had worked and he was with Kagome, and so had gone back to the village with Kaede.

Reluctantly, Inuyasha sat up, rubbing a weary hand over his face. He took in a deep breath and realised belatedly he couldn't smell any evidence of the final battle; no upturned or scorched earth, no lingering trace of miasma. He frowned, letting his mind latch onto this minor nuance, letting it distract him from Kagome.

Maybe there was another reason his friends weren't waiting for him at the top of the well. Maybe he'd caught the tail end of the well's dying magic and been propelled forward in time. If that was the case, it was anyone's guess by how long. Hours, days... years?

It didn't matter.

Kagome would still be gone. Miroku and Sango would still be planning to marry and start a family, reminding him unintentionally of what he'd never have. Maybe it would be for the best if they thought him long gone. He could slip away and they'd never be the wiser.

Even as he climbed out of the well and planned his escape, he felt a stab of guilt beneath his grief. Over the years they'd travelled together, he had come to honestly care for Miroku and Sango. Even the brat fox kit, Shippo, meant something to him, even if he'd never tell him that. Maybe he wouldn't be able to walk away from them forever. But for now... now, he needed some space. He needed to go away, be alone again, figure out what he was going to do with himself now that his future had been taken away from him.

He pulled himself over the wooden rim of the Bone Eater's Well and looked around. Yeah, probably rode the last breath of magic in the damn thing and lost a year or two. Everything around him looked healthy and alive, nothing like a village that had recently seen a battle. Naraku's miasma had withered many of the trees in this area; the forest here was blooming, filled with the sounds of content, chattering animals and birds.

The scent of the village was strong, too. He could smell people, cooking, and the fields they worked. Incense from the shrine. Flowers, too. Seemed it was still summer, no matter how many years had passed since he'd jumped in after Kagome. Simple smells of a village untouched by trouble.

More reluctantly than he'd expected, he turned away from the village and walked in the opposite direction, back through his forest, avoiding the Goshinboku and the memories that haunted its boughs. He had no aim; his feet simply picked a direction and he followed it, something he hadn't done since before he met Kikyo.

It was unnerving how easily it came, even after all those years.

He was just utilising an old skill, he told himself. When he needed to get away, why did it matter how he got there?

He was out of the forest and on his way to destinations unknown when a familiar youki blazed in the distance and brought him to an abrupt halt.

 _Why did it have to be him?_ Inuyasha thought tiredly, staring in the direction of his brother's approach. Why Sesshomaru, who would doubtless want a fight? He didn't have the energy now. Even as Tetsusaiga began rattling in its sheath due to the proximity of its twin, he didn't draw it. Couldn't.

Maybe he was feeling suicidal, he thought faintly, as the ball of Sesshomaru's youki appeared over the trees ahead of him. Why wouldn't he? It was over. Everything was over.

The wind picked up as the ball of light shot straight toward him, and still he didn't draw his blade. He just stared dully as it ploughed into the ground in front of him, throwing up dirt and grass, and reformed into his brother.

For an instant, Sesshomaru just stared at him from less than a foot away. Inuyasha stared back, but suddenly with more interest. And shock. Gone was the aloof, superior expression. Gone was the chill from his eyes. Instead, his face was open, a mingling of grief and shock and hope and other things that Inuyasha couldn't even recognise, leaving his mouth hanging open and his mind completely blank of what to say.

Then Sesshomaru moved. Inuyasha, thrown off-balance by being able to read Sesshomaru's face for the first time in his life, threw up his hands, forgetting his earlier numbness and inability to defend himself, ready to ward off an attack. But it never came. Sesshomaru's body collided with his, trapping his hands against the daiyoukai's chest, and strong arms wrapped around him crushingly tight.

He struggled, but the arms didn't budge. He didn't understand what was happening, but he expected any minute to feel the burn of his brother's claws through his flesh, even though this close contact business wasn't the daiyoukai's usual style, and growled in the back of his throat. When Sesshomaru's face pressed into the hanyou's hair and he exhaled raggedly, Inuyasha's brain once again flatlined and he froze in confusion.

He realised, after a few moments' uncertainty, that he was being... hugged.

By Sesshomaru.

He felt paralysed by the complete and utter weirdness of it all. His hands were still trapped between their bodies, palms pressed against his brother's chest as though completely all right with this. Which he wasn't. No fucking way.

He had to do something to get Sesshomaru to let him go so he could wrap his head around this. Who the hell would have thought Sesshomaru would miss him if he vanished? Hell, who would have suspected he even _cared_? He was certainly vocal enough about hating his hanyou little brother before Inuyasha hopped into the well to try and follow Kagome.

So what had changed?

Questions could be saved for later, Inuyasha decided, as his brain began to work again. Later, as in when he untangled himself from his brother's arms.

"Sesshomaru..." he began, his voice faint and weak with the ever present confusion.

The daiyoukai immediately pulled back enough to stare into his face, eyes roaming over every feature as though commiting them to memory. Inuyasha swallowed convulsively as a slender hand cupped his cheek, spiralling again into confused and freaked out silence.

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said, his habitually cold voice now rich and warm with emotion. "I thought I would never see you again, hanyou."

The word that had once been such a barb was spoken with such affection that Inuyasha's automatic comeback died on his tongue, and distracted him just enough that he was unable to react before warm, soft lips pressed against his, breath mingling, the golden eyes so similar to his own closing slowly.

The kiss - Sesshomaru was _kissing_ him? - lasted no more than a few seconds before Inuyasha jerked into action, shoving Sesshomaru back and himself away with a burst of strength he hadn't known he had, leaping a few feet away from his apparently insane brother and holding a hand over his mouth to protect it from further assaults.

"The _hell_ was that?" he demanded, watching Sesshomaru warily.

"Inuyasha..." Sesshomaru started forward, but when the hanyou took a step back to match his progress, he stopped. "Have you truly forgotten, hanyou? About us, about everything?"

Inuyasha blinked. "' _Us_ '?" he croaked. "What the hell are you talking about? This is no 'us', and I ain't forgotten anything. Last time I saw you, you were doing your own thing after we killed Naraku, so whatever deranged ideas you've got in your twisted mind about me, they're bullshit."

Sesshomaru's face contorted in anger. "Naraku," he said coldly, which actually made Inuyasha relax minutely. That was familiar. "There is no need to mention that foul spider. We saw to his end years ago, as you should know."

 _So I really did lose some years,_ Inuyasha thought. But it still didn't explain why Sesshomaru was being all weird and touchy feely.

"Yeah, I know that," he said with a touch of bitterness. "But the memory's still a little fresh for me." Less than a day, in his mind. Had it really been so short a time?

Sesshomaru's face cleared and he nodded in what seemed like understanding - another anomaly, but acceptable compared to that damn kiss. "Yes, I suppose it would be," he said slowly. "I don't know how you managed to return from the netherworld, little brother, but I cannot express how glad I am to see you again."

"Netherworld?" Inuyasha repeated dumbly. Then he shook his head sharply. "I didn't cross over, idiot. I went through the Meidou Zangetsuha, that's all." Nevermind the fact that he may not have come out alive - or at all. The risk had been worth it to save Kagome.

Sesshomaru stared at him strangely for a moment. "Inuyasha," he said quietly and with the slightest tremor in his voice, a roiling storm of emotion suddenly in his eyes, "you died. I held you in my arms as you breathed your last. The Tenseiga... couldn't revive you."

Inuyasha sucked in a breath. That hadn't happened. He knew it hadn't.

"No," he said, as calmly as he was able, which wasn't very. What the hell was going on? "I went through the Meidou Zangetsuha. I helped Kagome get out of the void between worlds and return safely to her own home, and then I came back here. I didn't... die."

"Kagome?" Sesshomaru's voice was impossibly gentle, his face achingly sympathetic, and Inuyasha's gut clenched instinctively. "Inuyasha, Kagome was killed by Naraku nearly a decade ago."


	2. Chapter Two

_Dead for nearly a decade._

The words echoed around Inuyasha's mind as a new, chilling numbness swept in. There had to be a mistake. Sesshomaru never paid enough attention to remember the names of his friends; he'd hate himself for thinking it later, but maybe it was Sango he meant. Kagome couldn't be dead. He'd taken her back home himself.

But he couldn't really accept the idea of a mix-up. A decade. A decade ago, someone had died. How much fucking time had he lost and what the hell had happened?

No use looking at Sesshomaru for the answer. He hadn't changed since they'd first met nearly three hundred years ago. Not even his clothes, the formal trappings of the Lord of the West, had altered. Inuyasha himself was the same; for at least two centuries, his physical appearance hadn't differed. Like Sesshomaru, his outfit - his armour - never left him. Neither of them embraced change.

Except their eyes. Somehow, Sesshomaru's had become warm, open, when once they'd been only ice and mirrors, reflecting and giving nothing away, revealing nothing beneath that hard, chill outer layer. And Inuyasha no longer stared out at the world from behind his walls behind walls with unwavering distrust. All thanks to the same woman Sesshomaru had declared dead.

Could Kagome have come back somehow? Had the well regained its power while he'd drifted and brought her back? He wouldn't have been there for her. He wouldn't have been able to protect her if something came after her, and the thought made his stomach turn in thick, greasy knots.

He'd always thought fate was a cruel bitch, but could it really have been that capricious? So cruel that it deemed fit to bring Kagome back - something he'd ached for since the well had sucked him back in - and then kill her before they could reunite?

No, there had to be a mistake. But even as his head steadfastly refused to accept it, a fresh, aching pain bloomed in his heart as he stared, unblinking, at Sesshomaru. Those eyes, usually so unpenetrable, were open and filled with a sympathy and sorrow that made Inuyasha cold inside. Filled with a certainty that what he said was undeniable truth.

There had to be a mistake, he thought again. Repeated it like a mantra, as though by simple force of will he could make it undeniable truth instead. But there was doubt slithering through him, prickly with fear, and he couldn't shake it.

He told himself it was just from the sucker punch of hearing she was dead. The very idea shook him, that was all. He'd believed it in the past and she'd turned out to be all right. He'd held her, lifeless in his arms, when she'd supposedly succumbed to Mukotsu's poison and the smoke from the fire that bastard Renkotsu had started. But she'd woken, and she'd lived. He'd shed tears, felt his world go cold, but she'd come back to him, brought the warmth and the hope back into his life.

She'd come back again.

She had to.

"Little brother."

The hanyou only noticed that Sesshomaru had moved when he spoke. He blinked, surprised to see him so close, only dimly aware of the gentle pressure of the daiyoukai's hand on his arm. Again, a phrase that had once rolled off his brother's tongue with equal amounts distaste and derision now carried familiarity and warmth, but Inuyasha couldn't focus on confusion. Not when he had to find a way to prove Kagome was alive.

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru continued when Inuyasha remained silent. "It pains me to bring you this news again. It tore you apart then as much as it does now."

For at least a minute, Inuyasha just stared blankly, riding a fresh wave of pain. Yeah, it fucking tore him to pieces; that was a fucking understatement to what he felt, and if he'd had the energy to be angry, he'd have shouted.

But on the heels of this pain, the wheels in his mind began turn, stuttering to a slow start, but a start nonetheless. Proof, that was what he needed.

He wasn't going to find it with someone who insisted Kagome was dead.

He shook Sesshomaru's hand off his arm and backed a few steps away. He was relieved when Sesshomaru didn't follow, but pointed a finger at him aggressively anyway.

"You're wrong about Kagome, you hear me? She's not dead. She can't be dead. I just saw her. She's not dead!" he shouted. "I'll prove it to you. I'll find her and show you she's not dead."

He began skirting around Sesshomaru, intent on heading back toward the village. The people there were their friends; he was sure one of them, at least, would be able to tell him the truth. Kaede would know what really happened. She could always be relied on to bring them back to sound physical and emotional health.

When Sesshomaru turned to watch him, even started to reach for him, Inuyasha once again branded his finger like a weapon, stopping the powerful daiyoukai in mid motion. The hanyou was too emotionally unsettled to marvel at the significance.

"Don't you follow me, you bastard," he said threateningly. "I don't wanna see your damn face anymore!"

Purposefully ignoring how Sesshomaru's eyes shadowed, Inuyasha turned away and sprinted into the trees, leaving a forlorn inuyoukai behind him.

_________________________________________________________

Sesshomaru watched his retreating brother's back until the very last flash of red vanished. Even then, he continued to stare in that direction, his eyes never leaving that one spot, his body as immovable as stone.

What... had gone wrong? Because something evidently had. Inuyasha's memories were seemingly mangled in a most distressing manner, erasing pleasantries from his former life and leaving him with a crippling hope that would likely destroy him all over again. Sesshomaru simply couldn't fathom why such a thing would come to be.

Or how.

He couldn't help but feel some malicious force was at work. Some force that seemed to wish for them both to suffer; for what other purpose would they return Inuyasha to this world in such a state? Though it distressed him to think it, he wondered if it would not have been better for his brother to not have been disturbed from his eternal rest if only suffering awaited him, despite how much he had yearned to see him again these past eight years.

Youki shot through the periphery of his senses, moving at high speeds toward him. A cloud of dust burst from the forest's edge mere moment later as Sesshomaru turned to meet it, merely narrowing his eyes to protect them as that wave of dust passed over him.

It settled quicky to reveal the ookami, Koga, looking around frantically.

"Where is he?" the wolf demanded. "I can smell him. Where is he?!"

"He seems to have headed in the direction of the village," Sesshomaru replied.

"And you let him go!?" Koga shouted. "What's wrong with you!? I'll drag him back here myself!"

He made to do just that, but Sesshomaru caught him by the back of his armour, easily halting the younger youkai and pulling him back. The ookami struggled, doing everything possible to get away without striking the daiyoukai who held him.

"What are you _doing_?! It's Inuyasha!"

"It's... not Inuyasha. Not as we know him," Sesshomaru said quietly, stilling Koga more effectively than a blow would have. He turned to face Sesshomaru, frowning.

"What do you mean?"

"His memories... they're gone, or altered. He recoiled from me, and spoke of Kagome. He believes..." Sesshomaru hesitated.

"He believes... what?" the ookami asked, barely louder than a whisper.

"He believes Kagome is still alive."

Sesshomaru saw the emotion flitter across Koga's face: the grief, the ever-burning anger, the sheer sorrow. The wolf swallowed with difficulty.

"Why? Why does he think that?"

"I do not know. But I plan to find out." Sesshomaru looked toward the village, his smooth face marred with a grim expression.

Koga followed his gaze, his tail twitching in agitation. "Well, what did he say about me?"

"He... he didn't mention you. With his memories altered thus, it may be that he simply does not remember you." Sesshomaru heard the faint growl rattling in the back of Koga's throat, and put a hand on his shoulder. "I am sorry, my friend. If we manage to keep him with us this time, you may be able to rebuild the closeness you once shared."

Koga looked at him. "What about you? You said he turned you away?"

"Yes. It seems that is something else he cannot remember." Out the corner of his eye, the daiyoukai could see Koga struggling with something to say. If the situation had not been so disheartening, he might have smiled; the ookami prince had never had a way with words... much like Inuyasha.

"It is my hope, too, that I can regain what was once between us. Perhaps we can even restore his memories completely. We cannot give up hope, Koga. We must exhaust every possibility."

Koga sighed, scratching his head just above his ponytail. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Damn mutt's still causing us trouble, huh?"

With his eyes still gazing toward the village - towards Inuyasha - as though they could pierce the very trees, Sesshomaru finally smiled, but it was a smile of forlorn hope edged with bitter sadness.


	3. Chapter Three

Standing with one hand against the rough bark of a tree, Inuyasha looked back the way he'd come. After running with all haste away from his brother, he'd thought for a moment he'd heard that damn mangy wolf.

That would be the last thing he needed: another asshole messing with his head, getting up in his face. Maybe literally. If Sesshomaru had fucking kissed him - _kissed_ him! - out of the blue, there was no telling what the fucking fleabag wolf might do.

He shivered. Last thing he needed.

Mouth set in a grim line, the hanyou turned away and pushed himself into a determined walk, hand clenched firmly around Tetsusaiga's hilt. If either of them came anywhere near him, he'd show 'em he was in no mood to be fucked around with. He had a mission.

But how the hell was he supposed to concentrate on it properly if he was worried about being ambushed with sexual harassment? And by the two people he hated most in the world, no less? Just how fucked up had the world become while he'd been floating in the well?

Gods, this was fucking with his head. He should be thinking about _Kagome_ , not those two assholes. It was Kagome who needed his help.

Try as he might, however, his thoughts inevitably wandered back to what Sesshomaru had done. And the things he'd said. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't find a simple explanation to counter Sesshomaru's. No easy way to explain away this supposed death. Every theory had gaping holes in it.

And much as it galled Inuyasha to credit anything to his brother, he wasn't a liar. Straight forward and with no need to conceal his actions or motives (barring his annoying superiority complex, of course, when he got his rocks off making his little brother jump through hoops figuring things out), in his own way, he was as blunt and brusque as Inuyasha himself.

 _Someone_ had died. He could accept that. It happened all the time in the world. Humans killed each other over women, money, land, and a host of other reasons Inuyasha always thought stupid. Youkai killed humans and each other for territory, food, females... pretty much the same reasons, now that he thought about it. The world was a dangerous place, with all manner of beasts fighting for survival. So he could accept that someone, somewhere, had died.

He just couldn't - wouldn't - accept that it was her. Not without seeing some proof for himself. And until that was in front of him, cold, hard, irrefutable facts, he'd keep trying to prove she was alive.

It was just so... confusing. Everything Sesshomaru had said had been so real, yet so... _alien_ at the same time. Almost like he was mixing two stories together. But that didn't make any damn sense! None of it did!

Like him dying in Sesshomaru's arms... What the hell had that been about? The only time Sesshomaru ever touched him - except the kissing thing he was going to stop thinking about _right now_ \- was when he was trying to disembowel or otherwise tear him up. There was absolutely _no reason_ for Sesshomaru to even bat an eyelid if he was fucking dying, let alone hold him in his last moments. Hell, the bastard would probably be doing a fucking happy jig under that ice mask of his. Definitely not trying to revive him with the Tenseiga.

Unless he'd been pissed enough about something to want to kill him _again_.

"It doesn't make any sense!" he suddenly shouted, kicking a tree and startling a squirrel, which chattered angrily at him once it had retreated to higher ground. He glared at it.

"Fuck you, you little shit!" he growled. "Can't you see I'm having a fucking breakdown? Cut me some damn slack!"

He was about to kick the tree again when he realised he was shouting at a damn _squirrel_ and quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching him lose his goddamned mind.

He stuffed his hands in the sleeves of his haori and left the squirrel and its tree behind, his mood dangerously low by this point. He needed to talk to someone he trusted, he decided. He obviously wasn't going to get anywhere by himself. Unless complete and utter brain breakage counted.

Kaede would do. She was an annoying old bag sometimes, but he had to admit he trusted her. She always seemed to know the right thing to say to make it better, or at least direct his thoughts along the right path. Besides, she was pretty much the only choice. If he really had lost years in the well, chances were, Miroku and Sango had moved on and settled down somewhere and he didn't have the time or patience to go running around the country to finally get his answers about the death a decade ago.

A sudden thought drew him up short. Death. What about Kaede? She'd been damn old when he'd last seen her, and if he'd really been stuck in the well for at least a decade... Human lives were so short and frail...

He shook his head. No. No more thinking about death. Until he saw it with his own eyes, she was as alive and annoyingly sarcastic and wise as always.

Ignoring the creeping presence of trepidation, Inuyasha finally took a look around, trying to gauge where he was. To his surprise, he realised he was closer to the village than he expected - more than halfway, in fact. If he wasn't mistaken, the Goshinboku stood in the next clearing, a silent, unchanging witness to everything that had happened since Kagome had freed him from the sealing arrow. The hanyou managed a faint, wry smile. It seemed his feet had known where he needed to go before the rest of him.

He made a concentrated effort not to look at the Goshinboku as he passed it. Sometimes he got so melancholy and pensive when he was simply near it, thinking of Kikyo and how they'd been torn apart, and even reflecting on all that had happened with Kagome as well. Even he could see that sometimes they'd walked a rocky road, and at times they'd even walked it far apart from each other. Yet somehow, they'd always come back together, no matter what happened. He refused to believe this time would be any different.

His feet landed on a familiar path wound through the trees by the villagers as they gathered herbs and produce in various seasons, and he knew he was close. Scents of the village floated to him on the breeze (as did, disconcertingly, his brother's tell tale stink, but since it smelt days, even weeks old, he decided to put it - temporarily - to the side; he could only handle one distressing question at a time).

Then he rounded a corner, and all thoughts of scents and deaths flew out of his mind.

Laying on the path, a basket of scattered herbs lying beside her, was undoubtedly Kaede. He couldn't see her face, but how could he mistake her? Everything was just as he remembered it; the same miko outfit, the greyed hair tied neatly at the nape, the very shape of her and, as he hurried close enough to drop to his knees beside her, the familiar scent, too, like herbs and warm fires.

With gentle hands, Inuyasha rolled Kaede onto her back. His fingers pressed against her throat to search for a pulse. She was still warm to the touch, but he could find no evidence of a heartbeat. His ears twitched madly, trying to filter out the natural sound of birds singing and leaves rustling, searching desperately for the sound of her breathing; he couldn't bear to see the sight of her so unnaturally still, no rise and fall of her chest.

Couldn't bear the thought that he'd finally found a familiar, trusted face when all else seemed twisted and unusual, and it was only to witness her final moments.

Then, suddenly, he caught the sound of a wheezed breath. He couldn't stop himself slapping her cheek sharply, calling her name, desperate to rouse some other kind of life in her. He stared at her face, more deeply lined than he remembered, and _willed_ her to live. And slowly, her tired eyes opened.

"Inu.. yasha...?" she said, a smile teasing the corners of lips thinned with age. "I had thought it would be my sister who came to escort me to the other side, but I am happy to see ye in any case."

Inuyasha blinked. The other side? She thought she was dead? Well... he supposed he couldn't blame her, being as old as she was. He was surprised she could still walk even this far. Even he had to admit it wasn't outside the realm of possibility.

How the hell did he know he hadn't died in the well? Trapped inside as the magic ran out, even he wouldn't last long without food or water. For all he knew, this could all be some fucked up pre- or post-death delusion. Maybe even some kind of dream.

No, that didn't make as much sense as he'd first thought. Even if he was delusional, Kaede wasn't going to be sharing it with him. So if all this felt real, and he felt alive, then he was, and that meant she was, too. At least, that was the theory he was sticking to.

"You're not dead," he said decisively. "And neither am I."

Kaede looked surprised. "Be this a dream, then? For I know ye passed from this world long ago."

Despite all that had happened today, Inuyasha somehow managed to be amused that they'd had the same idea.

"Nope, not dreaming. I'm alive and kicking and seriously fucking confused about everything's that's happened in the last ten years, so you've got some questions to answer, old woman."

Kaede suddenly looked almost as confused as he felt. It struck him that he'd never seen her look like that before. She always seemed like she knew the answer to every question.

"But ye died, I know it," the old miko protested with surprising strength, despite her apparent close brush with death. "We all -" She was silenced suddenly by Inuyasha's hand pressed against her mouth.

"Don't go getting ahead of yourself, you old hag! You're just confusing the hell out of me even more!" Inuyasha pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Damn it all to hell, this was going to give him a headache if he didn't lay down some ground rules. "Look, I'm asking the questions here. Nobody else. If I'm gonna get this shit straight in my head, you gotta let me ask about it in an order that makes sense to me, got it? Don't elaborate, just tell it to me straight. Nice and simple, yeah?"

Kaede nodded, and Inuyasha huffed out a sigh as he took his hand away from her mouth. "We'd better go back to the village. We got a long talk ahead of us; we're best off in your hut. It'll probably be dark before we're done. You think you can walk or do I gotta carry you?"

The old miko shook her head. "Help me to my feet and I think I can walk the rest of the way."

Inuyasha complied, steadying the old woman as she struggled to stand. It was only when she stood straight - or as straight as her age would allow her to - that Inuyasha was finally able to absorb how much time had changed Kaede. She was thinner than he remembered, and her hair as well, her skin more sallow. She herself suddenly became the strongest evidence of time lost in the well.

He felt an odd pain in his chest, looking at her. It was the first time he'd been close enough to someone for long enough to see the passage of time affect them, to see with his own eyes the hallmarks of the body's slow descent into death. He was reminded in sudden, painful clarity of his future: inevitable loneliness. Time would never wither him up like this; he'd look the same centuries from now, if he lived that long. A mortal might say he was the lucky one, frozen in his prime, but they didn't look at friends two centuries younger and know they'll have to watch them all grow old and die, and end up all alone.

To distract himself from going down a dangerous path in his mind, Inuyasha latched onto something innocuous as he continued to study Kaede's face: her eyes. Forever bright despite her age, but that wasn't what caught his attention. It was simply her eyes. Both of them.

He hadn't seen her without the patch in fifty years, not since she was a brat not much older than that crazy kid who hung around Sesshomaru. If he was honest, he'd expected it to look kinda horrific, what with how she never took the patch off, but it was actually.. unblemished. Not only that, but the eye itself looked perfectly normal. Since it had happened in the middle of a fight - one he started, no less - he'd always assumed there would be _some_ damage to it, but...

Another question he didn't need crowding his mind. Again, he put it to the side, diverting his attention instead to scanning the ground. "Hey, where's your patch? Did it fall off when you fell?"

Kaede turned to blink at him. "Patch? Whatever do ye mean?"

"Y'know, for your eye. Though why you wear it when your eye looks fine is beyond me..."

"Inuyasha..." the old miko said slowly, as if she were talking to someone simple. "I have never worn a patch over one of my eyes. Why would I?"

A little lump of ice formed in Inuyasha's stomach, tendrils of cold spreading out like a frozen web. It was happening again; things were the same but different in a confusing and frightening way, and why did it have to affect Kaede, too? She was the group's rock; when everything else got screwed to hell, Kaede was always the same!

Trying to stay calm, Inuyasha swallowed with difficulty and pointed to her right eye. "You lost it. Couldn't see out of it. I don't know how it happened, exactly, but you lost that eye when I attacked the village fifty years ago. I always felt kinda guilty about it, but you never blamed me. You _have_ to remember it. You have to tell me you can't see out of that damn eye."

Suddenly looking concerned, Kaede lifted her thin hands to lay them on Inuyasha's arms, gripping surprisingly tightly. "Inuyasha, from where comes this nonsense? Ye never attacked the village. It was all that foul demon, Naraku. Ye have done naught but protect this village for fifty years until the time of your death, just as ye promised Kikyo ye would as ye stood over her grave." Kaede paused, watching him critically. "Ye never broke that promise, Inuyasha. And Sesshomaru took it upon himself to continue in your stead after your death. Together, the two of ye have saved our village countless times."

Inuyasha was all but physically rocked under the barrage of information.. He stared blindly ahead of him, trying to absorb everything he'd just heard.

He hadn't attacked the village? Naraku had done it himself? He hadn't been sealed to the Goshinboku by Kikyo? Did that mean _Naraku_ had been sealed instead? But then who would have unsealed him? Kagome? And, the most difficult thing by far to swallow, _Sesshomaru_ had protected a bunch of humans in a small, rural village in the middle of nowhere?

What... in the world was going on?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More questions!
> 
> Don't worry, I'll start explaining... eventually. >.>


	4. Chapter Four

Once again, Inuyasha found himself walking through the forest that bore his name. This time, however, he lacked any sense of determination. It had been replaced instead with a kind of dazed numbness and an undeniable sense of dread sitting heavy in his stomach.

What was he supposed to do now? He'd realised he'd been counting on the village as some sort of safe haven, somewhere he could relax and feel, well, safe while he picked apart the mess he'd landed in. Make sense of the strangeness somehow.

But the strangeness had invaded even there, he thought, with a sideways glance at Kaede. She looked the same, smelled the same, sounded the same... but she was different. She wasn't the Kaede he knew. Somehow, something had changed this woman and the world he knew so well, and all he could wonder was how much everything else had changed with her.

That the village looked as it always had was the first thing he noticed. It didn't seem to have expanded much in the last decade or so. Maybe a few new houses dotted the perimeter, pushing back the trees, and the fields were a little bigger, but all in all, it seemed exactly the same.

But that didn't cheer Inuyasha any.

The village itself wasn't what always gave him the feeling he hesitantly thought of as homey. It was the people _inside_ the village, though like hell he'd ever tell them that. It was this village, with both Kikyo and Kagome, that he'd found a place where the faces were the same - familiar - and they didn't chase off an unwanted hanyou. Oh, he had no illusions that they welcomed him with open arms, but there was a sense of security nonetheless.

Now... would those faces be different? Would their attitudes have changed? For better or for worse? Sure, Kaede had told him he was some sort of village hero, and even if she was different, he was still inclined to trust her word... but these villagers also thought of Sesshomaru the same way. That was just fucked up.

Following Kaede, Inuyasha took a deep breath and took his first steps into the village. The scents were pretty much the same as he remembered. He even caught those of villagers he was more familiar with, overlaid again and again throughout the village, and he would admit that soothed his frayed nerves just a little. But these people had aged, too.

And they were staring at him. He met the eyes of a few as he passed (one he recognised, but the others he didn't), but eventually found himself staring hard at Kaede's back with his shoulders hunched. They were all gaping at him, mouths and eyes wide open in what looked a hell of a lot like shock and horror to him. Some of them were even going pale. He was seriously beginning to wonder if Kaede was actually right about the opinion of him here.

"INUYASHA!" came a sudden, ear-splitting shriek, and the hanyou spun wildly even as he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"What the --!" was all he had time for before a mass of pink and flowers and _girl_ came flying through the air and barrelled into him full force, bending and almost breaking his spine from the impact. He was only saved from being knocked flat on his back by his quick reflexes, planting his feet firmly, claws digging into the ground, as he caught the way over-excited bundle.

"Let go!" he yelped as the _thing_ clung onto him like a happy monkey and proceeded to enthusiastically plant sloppy kisses on his cheeks and entire face in general, giggling like a loon, despite his best efforts to push her off him.

Finally, blessedly, she pulled her face back enough to look at him, a wide grin stretching from ear to ear and tears sparkling in her doe brown eyes. "I've missed you, Inuyasha! I'm so glad you're back!"

Inuyasha stared at her (still firmly attached to him, he didn't really have much choice). A face that was pretty, but ordinary, a small dusting of summer freckles across her nose, long black hair and warm brown eyes crinkled at the edges with her smile. She looked like any other village kid... and he had no idea whose she was. Actually, he couldn't even remember letting any of the village brats get _near_ him, let alone close enough to miss him.

So was this someone who remembered him... but he didn't remember them?

Fuck. He hadn't even thought of that possibility. He'd been so worried about having a place - a _familiar_ place - in the memories of the people he knew that he hadn't even thought of where he might fit with other people in this world turned upside down. How was he supposed to handle this?

"Look, kid..." he began, but the little monkey started chattering again.

"I was so sad when everyone told me you were dead, Inuyasha," she said sorrowfully. "But now you're back! I just _knew_ it couldn't be true, and I was right! Everyone will be so pleased. But how did you come back, Inuyasha? Was it hard? Where were you? Why did it take so long?"

Fuck, how was he meant to shut it up?

"Rin," Kaede said gently, but admonishingly. "Inuyasha needs time to come to terms with all that's happened. It would be best if ye gave him a little space until he's ready to greet ye properly, child."

Inuyasha felt the girl reluctantly let go of him and drop to her feet, but he wasn't paying attention. Rin? She said Rin, right? Rin, as in... that creepy little girl who was obsessed with his brother? _That_ Rin? She was living... in the village?

"Woah, woah, woah," he interjected, holding up a hand. "Rin? Sesshomaru's human? This is her?"

"I'm Inuyasha's human, too!" the girl protested, pouting up at him. He blinked. What?

"Rin, Inuyasha is having some trouble with his memories," Kaede said before he could formulate a response. "But we're all going to help him with that."

"Inuyasha, did you forget me?" Rin's eyes filled again, and her lower lip trembled in a way that alarmed Inuyasha more than the idea of being surrounded by youkai without his Tetsusaiga. Shit, he hated crying!

"No, no, I didn't forget you," he said hurriedly, stretching out his hands, then suddenly pausing them. What the hell was he supposed to do? Pet her like a dog? Stroke her like a cat? Fuck. He didn't get kids! "I just... I guess I forgot we were friends and all that." Like hell he did. But he'd lie through his teeth and tell her the sky was green if she stopped crying.

"But you will remember me, right?"

"Uh, sure..."

"You promise? Pinky swear?" She held out her hand, little finger extended.

Inuyasha stared at it. Shippo used to do shit like this, but not with _him_. Were they supposed to touch fingers or something? But even if he _did_ know, it wasn't like he could promise that. What was he meant to do in this situation? He looked beseechingly at Kaede, but was spared having to come up with some sort of response by another piercing, grating voice slicing through the quiet village.

"Rin! Rin, where did you go?!" shouted the voice Inuyasha instantly recognised, his hackles raising. This was a voice he would never forget, and one that would never change.

The little kappa came tearing around a nearby hut, running as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him, but he skidded the last few feet toward their little group with his beak wide open. "You - you --!" he stuttered, gesturing wildly with his ugly stick, and Inuyasha reacted out of pure instinct.

He slammed his foot down on Jaken's head hard enough to send the little imp sprawling face first in the dirt, glaring at him. "Listen, you little toad, if you _dare_ try to roast me with that stick again, I'll shove it up your ass. I'm _not_ in the mood."

Jaken shot to his feet the moment Inuyasha's foot lifted off him, spitting out a mouthful of mud. "You miserable hanyou! Filthy ingrate! How dare you strike me for no reason!"

Inuyasha almost felt like hugging the creepy little bastard for not being different. It was probably the first time in his life he was happy to have someone still hate him. He was even feeling good enough about it to not boot the little kappa over to the other side of the village when he started waving the stick around again, settling for just batting it out of his way.

Once again, Kaede came to his rescue. "Jaken, why don't ye take Rin to Akiko? Please tell her we need a large meal to be prepared tonight to welcome our hanyou friend back home. Rin's help will be greatly needed and appreciated."

Inuyasha had to admire the way the old woman diffused the situation in a mild manner. Rin looked elated at the idea of being entrusted with something so important, and after a brief squeeze of Inuyasha's hand (he had to admit he warmed to her a bit for that, because most people always worried about the claws), she was tearing off across the village with Jaken hurrying after her.

The hanyou let out a deep breath. "That was a lot to take in."

Kaede eyed him. "Ye didn't recognise Rin."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Well... when I last saw her, she was small. I mean, really small."

"Yes, five or six, if I remember correctly. She's now fourteen."

At least that gave him a better judge of how far he'd been carried forward in time by the well. Not far, but enough to seriously fuck things up, it seemed.

"Yet even with the age difference, ye should have at least been able to guess."

The hanyou glanced at her. "We weren't exactly close. Sesshomaru kept her away from us. Guess he was embarrassed to have a little human kid following him around, or maybe he thought we were as nasty as he was and might try to hurt her. Who knows. It's impossible to tell what that bastard is thinking." He felt her staring at him. "What?"

"Such things I never expected to hear ye say about Sesshomaru," the old miko replied. "Fight ye did, and often, but never was there hate between ye. Nor distance."

Inuyasha shook his head. "That's just one thing I need explained. Everything's... different. I don't understand any of it."

Kaede looked sympathetic as she laid a hand over his arm. "I feel the same way ever since seeing ye again. Come into my hut. We'll see if we can come to a mutual understanding."

Hoping fervently for that very same thing, Inuyasha followed her inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Rin is one of the most fun things ever. XD


	5. Chapter Five

Sitting on the wooden platform on the opposite side of Kaede's cooking pit, Inuyasha shifted his shoulders tensely. For the last ten minutes, neither of them had said anything. Both waiting for the other to start, Inuyasha supposed. It wasn't easy to tell someone you'd cared about for years that they were so different, you could barely recocile them with the person you'd once known.

For all he wanted to get to the truth, he suddenly found he didn't want to be the one to start this conversation. The more time passed, the more he got the feeling he wouldn't like what he was about to hear.

But he had to find out. The dread, the not knowing, was eating away at him.

"Where to start, huh?" he finally said, breaking the silence.

Kaede looked at him with sympathy. "Ye implied there were questions ye wanted to ask."

He scratched his head absently, dragging his gaze away and watching the flickering flames instead. "Yeah... Yeah, I do. But it seems every time someone opens their mouth around me, I get a dozen more questions, and everything's so out of order and jumbled up in my head and... I guess..." He sighed heavily. "I guess... what I really want to know about most... is Kagome."

"Kagome?"

"Yeah... What happened to her. Where she is. Stuff like that."

Kaede was silent and almost unnaturally still. Inuyasha's heart started speeding up almost instantly.

"What do ye last remember about her?"

Not liking where this was going already, Inuyasha frowned. "I'd just taken her home back to her time. She was safe. Last I saw her, she was with her family."

"Ah." The old miko stoked the fire with a stick that had become blackened at one end. "It seems ye have forgotten much, Inuyasha. Perhaps it is a blessing as much as a curse, in this case." Kaede's face underwent a change and suddenly seemed even older, tired and sad. "I am sorry to say it, but she was lost to us. In some ways, it was even more tragic than my sister's passing. Kagome was so young. Too young to be entwined with the fate of the Shikon no Tama, I always thought..."

Inuyasha didn't hear anything else. The blood was suddenly pounding furiously in his ears and a cold sweat was beading on his back. His body felt numb, almost paralysed. Though he stared into the fire, he couldn't see it.

It shouldn't have been such a shock. It wasn't like he hadn't had some kind of forewarning. Yet it was a quick, hard sucker punch he hadn't been able to brace himself for, and it left him reeling.

He didn't know how long he sat there, but when he blinked and focused on Kaede's face, the old miko was silent, simply watching him. He let out a shaky breath. "How?"

Kaede echoed his exhale, soft and regretful. "It was Naraku's doing," she said. "I don't know the details; never had the heart to ask. The knowing alone was enough for me."

_Naraku's doing._

_How?_ Inuyasha wondered. He'd been dead. They'd destroyed him, once and for all. The Shikon no Tama had followed him into nothing. And then he'd personally seen Kagome back to her own time, safe and alive.

So _how_ could this have happened? Could there have been a way for Naraku to come back? Had he somehow... been still alive? While he'd floated in the well, useless to everyone, had Naraku come back for them?

Had Kagome been there?

He wouldn't have been there with her, with any of them. He wouldn't have been able to lift a finger to help... hadn't known there had been any danger.

He forgot all his plans to learn what he could about what had changed here, maybe begin to understand _why_ it had changed. This eclipsed everything. Hearing someone whose word he trusted confirm the worst possible truth... he knew then it wasn't about seeing if he could potentially adjust to the changes. It was about seeing if he could somehow change this future.

The well, Inuyasha thought. The well was his one chance to fix things. If it brought him here, into this horrible future, it could take him back. He'd be prepared for it now; if he knew Naraku would come after Kagome, he'd just make sure she stayed by his side at all times. And maybe, just maybe, he could stop it happening again.

He stood abruptly, startling Kaede. "I have to go," he said simply, without looking at her. This sudden parting was, he could admit, a bit callous... but when he saved Kagome, none of this would matter anymore. It would all change, and this future wouldn't exist. Something brighter... _righter_ would take its place, and things would make sense again.

Decided, he started to leave, but the old miko catching and holding his hand made him stop, surprised. She'd never held his hand before. Never really touched him except when patching up his injuries. It made him meet her eyes again.

"There's nothing ye can do to change the past, Inuyasha," she explained gently. "Ye cannot bring Kagome back. Even the Tenseiga was unable to do that."

Inuyasha's mouth was open, ready to contradict her, to explain his plan, but that brought him up short. He couldn't deny that shocked him; despite his urgency, he found himself wanting to know more. "What d'you mean? You can't tell me _Sesshomaru_ actually..."

"Aye, he did. But the sword failed to bring her back, to the dismay of all. Sesshomaru began to lose faith in the Tenseiga after that. It was the second time it had failed him."

Staggered again, Inuyasha could only dumbly follow the conversation's natural path while his mind whirred ineffectually, struggling to accept what he was hearing. She'd implied it, and so to some degree he'd expected it, but still... 

"Second time?" he pressed.

"Ye don't remember that, either? Such gaps seem so strange..." Kaede seemed both surprised and sympathetic; she let go of his hand, finally, apparently content he would not try to leave for now. "It was Kikyo, of course. Though it was perhaps not unexpected, considering..."

Inuyasha's heart was once again pounding. Sesshomaru... had attempted to save Kikyo as well? How was that even possible? The daiyoukai had never even _met_ her while she'd been alive. Not as far as Inuyasha knew, anyway. But even if he _had_... why would he have bothered? Before Rin, Sesshomaru had never given a mortal a second glance, and usually not even a first. It was only that little girl he made any effort to save... and why he did even that much, Inuyasha had never figured out.

What did all this mean? He didn't understand any of it. It was like the world had tilted just a small degree; things were still painfully familiar but alarmingly foreign at the same time. How could everything have changed so drastically just because he'd gone back in the well?

"Sesshomaru never found a reason for the failures that satisfied him," Kaede continued over the silence. "But I have my own theories."

Inuyasha slowly sat down again, still trying to absorb all this information. Despite already feeling overloaded with it, he still asked: "What theories?"

"I know not what limits Tenseiga truly has, but I believe the sword has only a short time in which it can bring a soul back from the netherworld. As for my sister, I suspect he was simply... too late."

Inuyasha had to privately agree this made sense to him. A sword that could bring any soul back from the dead would be impossible. Such powers simply didn't exist. If they did, he would have chased them to the ends of the earth to bring back his mother. In that respect, he supposed Tenseiga was something of a miracle. More special than his Tetsusaiga.

"As for Kagome, the girl's soul was not of our time. I believe when she passed, her soul returned to where it should be." Kaede paused long enought to stoke the flames once more. "Tenseiga is a powerful sword, that is without question, but it is not infallible. I assume it simply could not bring back a soul from the future."

Again, it was completely plausible. It did make sense. Perfect sense, even. But part of him rebelled at accepting it. There had been a way to save Kagome's life, yet one technicality stopped it working? It was just too cruel. Hadn't they all suffered enough?

In the silence, the hanyou once again got to his feet. "I have to go to the well."

"The well?" Kaede asked, standing with him.

"I came through it," Inuyasha explained. "I don't know how... or why things have changed, but everything had been normal before I jumped in. If I go back.. maybe things will make sense again. It's my only hope right now."

"The Bone Eater's Well has been inactive since Kagome passed away, Inuyasha. Ye hadn't even been able to take her home after, to explain to her family... It hurt us all deeply to know that they would always wonder what happened to her."

That blow, he hadn't even seen coming. It was a possibility he hadn't even considered, and just imagining their pain hurt him as well. Had any of them really been cut any slack since they got tangled up with the Shikon no Tama? They'd all made the best of it, got back up whenever they got knocked down, but it had never really been easy. They'd all taken their knocks. Some harder than others, it seemed.

"The well is still the only way," he decided. It was his only chance to change this future where Kagome had died, to set things back on the right track. "I have to go back."

He might have said more, perhaps offered messages to pass onto his friends, but at that moment, twin bursts of youki flared in the village. Inuyasha stiffened as he instantly recognised them.

Rin's head popped into the hut before he could react, her face lit up by a smile as bright as sunshine. "Lord Sesshomaru is back! And Koga, too! Inuyasha, come see them!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I got a comment yesterday about this fic. They asked very nicely for more... and, well, I guess I got inspired. Let that be a lesson to all you silent lurkers out there! It's actually the second time this has happened to me (and that's just what I can remember off the top of my head), so it proves I'm simple-minded enough to work on things just because people ask me to personally. xD
> 
> If you think Inuyasha's trains of thought about what's happening around him are inconsistent, switching from one assumption to the next... I'll tell you that's not an oversight. It's deliberate. He's being hit with a lot of strange, confusing, distressing information over and over, so it's difficult for him to keep his thoughts on one track. There will come a time, in the future, where he finally has enough information to line it up properly and fully understand what's happened.
> 
> Then new drama will start, I guess. XD
> 
> In the meantime, hopefully this has answered at least a question or two. If not... things will start becoming clearer later. ^^


	6. Six

Inuyasha stepped out of the hut into the dwindling sunlight. He found himself surprised as he glanced at the fiery orange sky; he hadn't realised it had become so late. Not that it particularly mattered. Perhaps when he went back to where he came from, it would be full daylight again. Whatever the case, he wouldn't see the moon on this side of the well.

With Sesshomaru and Koga's youki bright and powerful to his right, Inuyasha determinedly turned left, toward the trees. He had no need to see them, did he? Not at all. He didn't have to give Sesshomaru a chance to do anything weird again, and no way in hell did he have to put up with the jackass wolf. They weren't his problem.

Besides, what the hell was he even supposed to _say_ to them? There wasn't anything _to_ say. Not from his point of view, anyway. He wouldn't remember the things they wanted him to remember... and he was pretty sure some of the things they wanted him to remember would never, _ever_ happen if the world was sane.

He remembered the kiss, put to the back of his mind earlier, and shuddered a little. Definitely not.

With that in mind, he deliberately set off away from Sesshomaru and toward the well. Time to get back to a place where Sesshomaru hated him, he hated Sesshomaru, and all parties involved were very, very happy with that arrangement. To a world that hadn't been somehow turned on its head.

But before he'd taken even three steps, small hands gripped one of his and forced him to stop. Inuyasha turned slowly, meeting the eyes of Rin. Well, after he misjudged the distance and ended up staring at her belly for a moment before he remembered she was a lot taller than before.

"Not that way, silly!" she said cheerfully with a bubbling laugh. "They're over here! Come!"

While she tugged on his hand, Inuyasha held his ground stubbornly. Like hell he didn't know where they were, but he supposed he couldn't call the kid a dumbass like he would Shippo. Why did there have to be different rules for girls and boys? Why couldn't he just thump them all and be done with it?

"Look, kid..." he began, trying to get his hand out of her grip, but she was clinging on tenaciously. "I really have somewhere to be, so... if you wouldn't mind letting go..."

Her grip only tightened, which he hadn't even thought possible. Shit.

"You can't leave!" She sounded scandalised and, he noticed, a touch afraid. His ears twitched and lowered a bit. "What if it takes you forever to come back again? Or... or what if this time you never come back?"

Her eyes began to fill with tears. _Fuck, fuck, fuck,_ Inuyasha thought.

"Everyone will be so sad if Inuyasha never comes home," she continued morosely. "And Lord Sesshomaru hasn't seen you yet! He'll be so sad! So Inuyasha has to stay!"

She chose a really poor argument there, he thought drily. But her tears, trembling and mere moments from spilling over, hit him like fists. Hastily, he crouched down to eye level, trying to ignore the villagers who were starting to stare at them.

"Ok... I promise I'll be coming back, all right? But there are some things that are wrong and I have to go try to fix them. So I have to go now, before it's too late."

Great. Now he was lying to a child whose only crime was to be just touched in the head enough to like his brother.

Rin blinked up at him, and a small tear fell from one eye. Gruffly, he wiped it off with the sleeve of his haori before it made his guilt even worse.

"Without Lord Sesshomaru? You always used to go together," she said with obvious confusion and made Inuyasha blink.

"Huh," was all he could manage. He refused to think about that. He didn't need anymore unanswered questions crowding inside his head. "Well, this time, it's different, all right? This is something I have to fix on my own. But we'll see each other again. I promise."

There. That wasn't really a lie, was it? Chances were, he'd run into Rin somewhere or other back where he was meant to be. It was just all in the wording. And it seemed to do the trick, because she finally let go of his hand and smiled trustingly up at him. That was a sneaky little punch to his conscience, but he made himself ignore it and get to his feet.

To look directly into Sesshomaru's eyes.

"What is it you must do, Inuyasha?" the daiyoukai asked quietly.

Shit. He'd forgotten the bastard could be sneakier than a ninja when he wanted to be. And Inuyasha had been so focused on making the girl stop crying that he hadn't noticed his youki coming closer. Both of them, actually, because he noticed Koga was standing to Sesshomaru's right and slightly behind him.

The wolf was staring, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. It would have been comical if it didn't creep Inuyasha out a bit. That wasn't the look of someone who'd seen an enemy for the first time in years. No... that was something else entirely, and he had no desire to find out what the hell it was. He hastily switched his attention back to Sesshomaru.

"Just something," he replied flatly. "And no, you can't come with. I'm doing this alone. You can all just wait here."

He didn't know how long they'd all be waiting, though. In spite of himself, that made him feel guilty. Even if everything was upside down in this world and it was freaking him out, it seemed they all cared... somehow. How long were they going to stay here, wondering what had happened to him, before he was able to do something to change the future?

The longer he stayed here, the longer it would take, he decided. And every minute he wasted on this side of the well was a minute where he might miss the chance to change things. For all he knew, Kagome could come back tomorrow. She'd need his help.

"I have to go now," he said simply as he turned away from them. He broke into a run, and in seconds, he was sprinting through the trees, a blur of red and silver to any who happened to see him pass by. A few seconds more, and he knew he wasn't alone.

He growled as Sesshomaru fell into step with him, effortlessly finding his way through the trees despite looking at Inuyasha, not where he was going. When his feet touched down in a clearing wide enough, the hanyou skidded to a stop, drawing the Tetsusaiga in one fluid motion. Sesshomaru stopped opposite him, his eyes lingering on the blade for a long moment before meeting Inuyasha's gaze.

"I told you," Inuyasha spat, "that this is something I'm doing on my own. You weren't invited. If you get in my way, I'll cut you down."

"And I asked you what it is you need to do. You have yet to answer," Sesshomaru replied calmly, without drawing his own blade. He seemed even more unfazed by Tetsusaiga's presence than usual. Like he didn't expect Inuyasha to use it.

Well, if that was the only way to get his point across...

His knees bent and braced, then he sprung into action, leaping across the clearing with a hard, fast downward arc of Tetsusaiga. Focused as he was, he saw the minute widening of Sesshomaru's eyes - he really _hadn't_ expected it, Inuyasha thought - before a slender hand shot down and unsheathed a sword, the blades meeting with a loud clash just in the nick of time.

Inuyasha landed lightly on his feet and pushed his advantage, putting every ounce of strength he had into breaking Sesshomaru's defence. But he had to admit, he was looking at Sesshomaru differently in spite of himself. He was crossing swords with a youkai who was, according to Kaede, not an asshole. Someone who had helped him, who had tried to erase his pain.

It was a foreign concept to him. Beyond foreign, so that he didn't really even have name for it. His brother had been a chief supplier of his misery for longer than he could remember. But different as she was, he still trusted Kaede's word. He found himself unable to really be angry at Sesshomaru. Annoyed at being interfered with, certainly, but his usual instinctive anger at the mere sight of him was absent. It was a strange feeling to not be able to almost taste his hatred for this youkai.

He forced himself to put it aside. He couldn't take on anymore confusion or he might lose his fucking mind. But as he leaned forward even further, he realised something else was very wrong with this situation.

"The Tenseiga?" he said aloud in confusion, his brows furrowing.

"You think I would draw the Bakusaiga against you, Inuyasha?" With one hand, he held Inuyasha at bay, never giving up an inch, but he simply held it there. He didn't push forward or counter. That kinda pissed Inuyasha off.

"Why not?" he countered, still trying to push through with brute strength alone. "You've tried to kill me with Tokijin more times than I can count. What's special about this sword?"

Sesshomaru's brows drew together ever so slightly. Inuyasha wondered if that might be as close as Sesshomaru came to looking confused. "Tokijin?" the daiyoukai asked, rolling the name on his tongue. "I know not of this sword, nor how I would have come to possess it. Nor why I would use it to cause you harm."

Inuyasha pushed off Sesshomaru's strength and landed nimbly on the other side of the clearing. Warily, he sheathed Tetsusaiga, and watched as Sesshomaru did the same with Tenseiga. Shit, more questions. He didn't need anymore fucking questions. Couldn't just one fucking thing be as he remembered it, for the sake of his increasingly fragile sanity? What kind of sick, fucked up joke was this place?

"Just... leave me alone! Let me do what I have to do. It doesn't concern you."

He took off again, speeding staight toward the well. He was pissed, but unsurprised when he felt and saw Sesshomaru following again. The asshole could be as stubborn as him sometimes.

Inuyasha caught his first sight of the well through the trees. It looked like it was almost falling apart, a bit more rundown than he was used to seeing it, and more vines crept along the weathered wood. He hadn't noticed that when he'd climbed out of it. He supposed a decade of neglect had taken its toll on even this.

As he broke through the tree line, Sesshomaru flew over his head and landed in front of him, forcing him to stop abruptly or barrel headlong into the daiyoukai. Since close proximity with Sesshomaru was something he didn't want to risk any time soon, he slammed on the brakes as hard as he could, leaving huge skids in the grass behind him.

"What the fuck was that for, you bastard?" he snapped, glaring at Sesshomaru as he backed up a few more paces, just to be on the safe side. There would be no more kissing.

"You sought the well," the daiyoukai said, completely ignoring his outburst. "Why? It has allowed no one to pass through it for nearly a decade now. What are you trying to do?"

"Yeah, well, that's changed." Knowing he probably wouldn't get around Sesshomaru until he explained at least some of what was happening, he decided on disclosure. It couldn't hurt, after all; he'd be changing all this just as soon as the ass got out of his way. "It's active. For me, at least. I came here through the well. And now I need to go back, because nothing's like I remember it and I don't belong here."

"You came... through the well," Sesshomaru repeated, and again his slim silver brows drew together a fraction. "From the past? I don't understand --"

"I don't care if you don't understand," the hanyou interrupted flatly. "I _have_ to go back. Simple as. I can't stay here where nothing makes sense and everything's all fucked up. I want to go back home." He drew in a deep breath. "Now let me pass."

He could see a struggle of some kind on Sesshomaru's face, but forced his eyes away. Just because he could somehow read Sesshomaru's expressions still didn't mean he needed to; he didn't want to know what was going through the daiyoukai's mind. He cautiously side-stepped, hand on the hilt of Tetsusaiga, but Sesshomaru remained still. Relaxing a fraction, Inuyasha walked around him entirely and finally braced his hands on the rim of the Bone Eater's Well.

As he put a foot on the edge, ready to hop inside, he felt Koga's youki in the trees. He tensed for the jump, then found himself pausing. "You can explain it to the wolf," he said gruffly. "If Kaede hasn't already. And... tell Rin I'll be coming back." It was the best he could do now.

"Yet you know this is not the truth," Sesshomaru said quietly, almost softly behind him.

"It will be," he said decisively. Inuyasha made the mistake of looking back over his shoulder, and felt another small blow. Sesshomaru's face was as composed as ever, but his eyes... All Inuyasha could think was that they were grieving. If he hadn't known the daiyoukai better, he might have thought he was on the verge of tears.

He turned away quickly. Damn it, he hadn't wanted to see any shit like that. That's why he hadn't looked at Kaede after he left the hut. And Sesshomaru was the last person who had the right to make him feel guilty about leaving them all behind.

"Take care," he muttered without thinking, and threw himself into the cool and dark of the well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't go, Inuyashaaa D:
> 
> I still really, really, really like writing Rin. Her bits just breeze by. And writing Inuyasha not having a clue how to deal with kids just tickles me endlessly XD
> 
> I've been on a roll with this fic. Chapters seven and eight are complete and thus shall be updated in the near future. ^^
> 
> Until then, enjoy. <3


	7. Seven

As Inuyasha disappeared from his sight, Sesshomaru moved forward; he couldn't help himself. He watched the flash of red and silver vanish into the dark as his hands gripped the rim of the well hard, but they itched to... to what? To reach in and pull him back?

Yes, that was what he wanted to do. Inuyasha was back, living and breathing, and now he was trying to leave. It was understandable that he would want to pull him out of the well before it could take the hanyou far beyond his reach. But... that wasn't what Inuyasha wanted.

Ever since they had been reunited, the hanyou had been on edge. Confused. Panicked, even. He'd run almost blindly from their encounter, only to stumble headlong into further confusion and evident distress. It was no wonder he wished to return to where things seemingly had made sense to him.

And with his memories apparently altered or erased somehow, could Inuyasha be happy here? Would he ever be able to reclaim his missing memories or even simply accept the true reality? Somehow, Sesshomaru doubted the latter. His hanyou was so stubborn and unwilling to bend; likely he'd waste so much of his life denying what was real and trying to prove he was right. Nothing any of them could say would change his mind. They would only drive him into a corner.

It was, perhaps, for the best to let Inuyasha return to where he'd come from. It would hurt, but he could hope to satisfy himself by hanging onto this brief glimpse of him. It was more than he'd ever expected to receive.

"Damn it!" a voice suddenly exploded from the well, followed by the harsh sound of flesh impacting something solid. Sesshomaru sucked in a breath, peering down into the gloom. He caught sight of a faint flash of shimmering silver lit up by the dying sunlight and exhaled slowly through his nose, a ball of tension unwinding from between his shoulders.

Inuyasha was still here. The well hadn't activated to take him back. He could wonder why and worry about the ramifications later; all he cared about at that moment was the fact that his brother was still with him. They had time still, and perhaps something could be done to help Inuyasha remember in spite of his contrary nature.

Koga emerged from the trees at that moment, almost visibly bristling like a cat. In a matter of bounnds, he was standing by the well with Sesshomaru, but before the daiyoukai could even so much as open his mouth, the ookami was pounding both fists on the rim, breaking off a section of the degraded rim. He ignored it.

"He fucking went back already, did he?" Koga growled, tearing pointlessly at some of the vines in his temper. "Left without saying a fucking word to me, did he? That fucking asshole, I'll --"

He was cut off as Inuyasha abruptly leapt out of the darkness and drove his foot straight into Koga's face, knocking the off guard wolf clear off his feet. The hanyou landed nimbly just as Koga's back was hitting the ground, and planted one foot in the middle of the ookami's chest. Inuyasha folded his arms, glaring down at the wolf who was busy holding his nose and cringing.

"You'll do what, exactly?" the hanyou asked, then snorted. "Lemme tell you something: of the three of us, I'm the least asshole-ish. And that's saying something."

"You broke my nose, you bastard!" came Koga's muffled growl. And when he pulled his hand away, it was indeed crooked.

Inuyasha shrugged. "It'll heal. And it's an improvement, anyway. It'll draw attention away from how damn ugly the rest of your face is."

Koga's bright blue eyes flashed dangerously and he gripped Inuyasha's ankle in one hand and his calf in the other, shoving to the side. Inuyasha went down, but he rolled with the drop and was on his feet like Koga mere moments later. Then the two of them were in each other's faces, just as Sesshomaru remembered, like no time at all had passed.

"You want me to bust up your face, dog shit?"

"You want me to ram Tetsusaiga up your ass, mangy wolf?"

He might have been tempted to allow them to continue and simply enjoy the exchange, but he could see his brother was stressed. No doubt Inuyasha was thinking about the well and why it had remained inactive, and trying to understand why. It was clear to Sesshomaru that the hanyou would want some time to think.

"For suck's sake, I don't have time to deal with you!" Inuyaasha was saying, further supporting Sesshomaru's theory. As the hanyou pushed the wolf away, he stepped closer to them.

"Koga," he said loudly enough to draw their attention to him. "You should return to the village."

"What? Why --" Koga broke off as Inuyasha took advantage of the distraction to disappear into the trees nearby. "Hey! Come back here, you damn mutt!" He started after Inuyasha, but Sesshomaru caught him by the arm.

"Let him go," the daiyoukai said calmly. "He needs time to think."

"We can't just let him go!" the ookami argued. "What if he runs off again and disappears?"

"I don't believe he will. He needs the well. He'll come back." Sesshomaru turned to look in the direction Inuyasha had headed. "Besides, I'm going after him. I need to talk to him."

Koga's arm relaxed in his grip finally, so Sesshomaru let go. "Yeah... yeah, I guess you do. Shit." He rubbed a hand briskly over his face. "You bring him back home soon, yeah?"

The daiyoukai nodded, and they went their separate ways; as Koga raced back toward the village, Sesshomaru disappeared into the trees in the opposite direction, following his brother's trail.

~*~

Inuyasha stood in front of the Goshinboku with his hand pressed against the trunk's scar.

Or he would have been, if the scar was there. But he couldn't find a single trace of it, not even so much as a dent in the bark. He'd always known without looking exactly where it was, so why wasn't it where it should be? Just in case he was somehow mistaken, he'd walked around the entire damn tree looking for it, but it was simply... gone.

It couldn't have healed. The gouge in the bark had been made by a sacred arrow. A mark like that didn't just fade away. It should have stayed there forever, a silent reminder of so many turning points in his life.

Did that mean... it had never been there?

And what the hell did that mean? That he was the one who was wrong? Didn't the majority vote count in this sort of thing? If everyone in his life, and now even this damn tree, sang the same song and only he was out of tune... didn't that make him the one in the wrong?

Was it possible that his memories were somehow confused, or changed? What could have done that to him? Why? Would he be able to fix it?

And how was he meant to accept it when everything in him rebelled at the thought?

He sank both hands into his hair, gripping hard for a moment, hoping the pain would clear his head. He only succeeded in making his scalp hurt; while absently rubbing it, he found himself checking for bumps.

It was one flimsy explanation. If he'd hit his head hard enough, he might have forgotten a few things and scrambled some others. It was a long shot, but not, he supposed, outside the realm of possibility.

Or maybe... maybe it was just some kind of fucked up dream. He could have knocked himself clean out and this could all just be a nightmare. Dear gods, if that was the case... if he woke up and everything went back to normal... he'd do the most disgusting thing he could think of and kiss Jaken. He was that desperate.

But he'd run his hands over every inch of his head at least twice, and there were no bumps. And he was pretty sure he'd heard somewhere that once you realised you were having a nightmare, the nightmare stopped. Those theories were out, then. What options was he left with after that?

When he felt a familiar youki approaching, Inuyasha wasn't surprised. Sesshomaru had never been the type to give up so easily. He'd been expecting his brother to show up eventually.

He wasn't going to run, though. Like hell was he going to let Sesshomaru chase him all over the place just because the bastard was too stubborn to leave him in peace. He'd tell hm flat out he wanted to be left alone, and if Sesshomaru didn't agree... well, they'd just have to fight it out, wouldn't they?

He hopped up onto a familiar branch of he Goshinboku, running his hand over the bark of it. Everything about this tree was exactly as he remembered right down to the very last twig; it was just one, small thing that was missing and made all the difference in the world. Trying to ignore how he didn't really feel like it was _his_ tree, Inuyasha settled himself with his back against the thick trunk.

It was only a matter of minutes before Sesshomaru appeared. He stepped into the clearing and calmly approached the tree, his eyes drifting up to find Inuyasha sitting on one of its lowest branches. Inuyasha got in first before Sesshomaru had a chance to speak.

"What the hell are you doing, following me around?" he demanded. "I told you to leave me alone. I meant it. Last thing I need is you popping up every single time I turn around."

Sesshomaru stopped once he was underneath the boughs of the Goshinboku, looking up at him. "I don't intend to follow you always," the daiyoukai replied. "I came here only because I have something I need to say. If, after you have listened, you still desire to be alone, you need only ask."

Inuyasha eyed him suspiciously. "Oh, yeah? And what's that?"

The daiyoukai met his gaze, but said nothing. Those eyes held something weighty that he couldn't indentify. For a moment, Inuyasha thought he might change his mind and back out. But then Sesshomaru sighed softly, and the tension faded. 

"I merely wanted the chance to apologise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't planning to update for a couple days yet, but I'm booored. Also, I've had a migraine since yesterday so I'm feeling sorry for myself, and some comments might cheer me up. -hinthint-
> 
> For the sake of this not being long on an epic scale, and you guys not being frustrated and confused, questions will start to be answered now. And we'll be moving onto the actual plot. xD
> 
> Until then, enjoy <3


	8. Eight

Inuyasha nearly fell off the branch, he was so startled. Sesshomaru... apologising? Never in almost three hundred years had he heard his brother apologise. He'd never even heard of an instance where the daiyoukai had said he was sorry for anything. It simply didn't happen.

"After you left earlier, I began to realise my actions were questionable," Sesshomaru explained, his voice sincere and his face open. 

He was. He was really apologising. Inuyasha found himself leaning over the side of the branch to get a better look at him. He couldn't help it. So strange was it to think of Sesshomaru being sorry that he felt he had to check it was really him.

"No doubt, given how little you seem to remember, it was shocking to you. And rather overwhelming."

That was a fucking understatement if he ever heard one. Last thing he'd ever expected after running into Sesshomaru was... what happened. He didn't want to think about it. But it was strange again for Sesshomaru to care about how he felt.

"I acted under false assumptions, and for that, I am sorry. It was never my intention to startle or otherwise distress you." Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed on his. "Even though you're annoying," the daiyoukai finished, reaching up to wrap his hand around the dangling ends of Inuyasha's hair befrore the hanyou could pull back. With a simple yank, Inuyasha toppled to the ground with a startled squawk.

He landed on his back, winded, with his hair splayed over his face and puffing upwards as he coughed. Slender fingers reached over to gently pull it aside, and he batted them away absently. It was then that he noticed Sesshomaru was sitting beside him and he sighed. Hadn't the daiyoukai said he was going to leave after he said his piece? Or implied it, at least?

"You didn't take my apology seriously." Sesshomaru's voice was calm, but the undertone of accusation was there.

Still lying on his back staring up at the Goshinboku's leaves, Inuyasha shrugged awkwardly. "I guess I did. I'm just... not used to you taking the blame for something."

"When fault is clearly mine, I won't hide from it. You... should know this."

"Yeah, well, I don't, do I? I keep saying that. Nothing's how I expect it to be."

Sesshomaru fell silent while Inuyasha lapsed into brooding. He still didn't know if the fault was with himself or his surroundings. How was he meant to know what to trust?

Finally, the daiyoukai spoke up again. "Why did you come to this tree?"

Inuyasha propped himself up on his elbows, eyes settling once again on the patch of bark that should look so very different and frowned. "Why isn't there a scar?" he asked, mostly of himself.

"A scar?"

"Yeah... Should be a scar about a third of the way up the trunk from a sacred arrow. Kikyo sealed me to that tree over fifty years ago, remember? So why isn't the scar there now? If a priestess' spiritual power marked a tree, the mark shouldn't fade, right?"

"That is correct," Sesshomaru said slowly. "But the miko did not seal you to this tree."

Inuyasha sat up all the way and turned to face his brother. "Did you meet her?" He'd been wondering about that, among other things, ever since his talk with Kaede.

"No."

"Then how do you know that? You weren't there."

"No, I wasn't, but after her death at the hands of Naraku, you came to find me for the Tenseiga. Yet it was unable to bring her back."

It matched up exactly with what Kaede had told him, he thought, with a sinking feeling in his stomach. And that meant the worst for him, didn't it?

"Why don't I remember it that way? Why am I the only one who remembers it happening differently? What does that mean?"

Sesshomaru's arm twitched, as though he planned to reach out, but he restrained it and kept his hands in his lap. "What do you remember?"

He gave a pithy summary of the events of that fateful day as he recalled them, only leaving out that he'd desired the Shikon no Tama for himself in order to become a full youkai. After all that he'd been through, learning that humans were not weak and that even a hanyou could be accepted just for who he was, he felt... almost embarrassed by it. Certainly it wasn't something Sesshomaru needed to know.

"Is something wrong with me?" he asked at the end, all but forgetting he was having a civil conversation with, and asking advice from, his brother, whom yesterday he'd considered a hated enemy. "My memories?"

Sesshomaru gave him a considering look, evidently still thinking over the story Inuyasha had told him. Finally, the daiyoukai let out a long breath. "I have never heard of anything that could alter the memories, especially not to such an extent. I had originally thought of that myself, but..."

Inuyasha's brows furrowed. "But what?"

"Something you have been saying has given me another idea," the daiyoukai continued. "You say that "this world" is different. Not your memories. Deep down, you believe that what you recall is correct, and the problem is external from you. I've begun to wonder if you might be right."

Inuyasha stared, his mouth hanging slightly open. Finally, someone was seeing his side of things, but of all people, it had to be Sesshomaru. Yes, this world was certainly different.

"So what are you saying?" the hanyou asked. "Are you actually suggesting this world is somehow... wrong? You, Kaede, everyone else?"

The daiyoukai shook his head. "Not exactly. We both know there are forces in this world capable of creating doorways to other times and places. The Meidou Zangetsuha is one of them; the doorway it creates is one to the netherworld. The monk's kazaana could also have been considered one, though we know not where it led." Sesshomaru's gaze had wandered away, but now it returned to Inuyasha and sharpened. "And, of course, the Bone Eater's Well is the most obvious of them all. You did say you journeyed here through it, correct?"

The simplicity of it, the obviousness, stunned Inuyasha. How he hadn't thought of it before now, he had no idea. Despite how strange a thing the well was, it was the logical choice. After all, what did they really know about the Bone Eater's Well? For many years, it had been a source of mystery, devouring the bones of slain youkai. And then it had brought a girl five hundred years into the past to destroy a jewel of near limitless power.

They had been naive to think it could only connect the present and the future. Perhaps the real truth was that it had simply taken them where they needed to go and could have, at any time, dropped them somewhere completely different. Really, he and Kagome might have been lucky it brought them safely back and forth all the many times they'd travelled through it.

If this was what had really happened, it meant he wasn't somehow defective. His memories were real. And so was this strange reality he'd been spewed into. Thinking of it that way, he could begin to accept that things had happened differently here without worrying what it meant. There was no crisis he had to avert because this wasn't his world to change.

Sure, it was still strange to think of a world the same as his own except really different, but it was easier to swallow than thinking everything had suddenly tilted somehow.

He closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath as the oppressive weight he'd carried since he'd climbed out of the well seemed to lift from his shoulders; the tension flowed out of him as the relief swept in like a cleansing wave. If all this was to be believed, Kagome was alive. His Kagome, at least. Somewhere, in her time, she was safe with her family, just where he'd left her.

Emotion swamped him. Something surged up his throat, desperate to get out. His eyes stung, and he pressed his fingers against them as he rested his forehead against his knees. He couldn't tell if he was about to laugh, or cry, or both; he only knew that he wasn't quite ready to let even this world's Sesshomaru see him break down like that.

Fighting for control of himself, he barely felt the hand that ran gently, soothingly down the length of his hair.

~*~

Twent minutes later, he was feeling a lot better. He'd managed to avoid crying like a big girl in front of his brother, and he was starting to come to terms with his current situation. He'd been forced to shove Sesshomaru's hand away to get him to stop stroking his damn hair, but he could deal wth that. It was better than the kissing thing.

He was finally able to wrap his head around some of the strange things he'd seen and heard; instead of trying to understand it all, he was just shoving it all in an "Other World Shit" box in his mind and leaving it at that. There was no need for him to try and string it all together neatly so that it made sense when he wasn't going to be staying here. He had his own world to be getting back to.

At least, that was the plan. So far, it wasn't going so well.

Inuyasha glared at the well and fought the urge to kick it. Only not knowing whether or not the thing had to be fully intact to work kept his foot in check; the wolf had already broken a piece off when he'd had a tantrum earlier, and the hanyou didn't want to risk anymore damage.

He'd just climbed out of it after it failed to work. Again. Why? What was wrong with it? Could it be like Sesshomaru said, that the well wasn't active here anymore?

No, it couldn't be that. If the damn thing was active enough to bring him here, it was active enough to take him back. So that meant something was stopping it working. Or there was a reason why it wasn't showing its powers now. He just had no idea what the cause could be.

"Why won't it take me back?" he muttered to himself. "It always takes me where I need to go."

"Have you considered that this might be where you are needed?" Sesshomaru asked quietly behind him.

Inuyasha turned to face him. He hadn't told Sesshomaru to buzz off yet, despite being tempted. Even if he knew this Sesshomaru was different and apparently not an asshole, it still creeped him out a bit to have the daiyoukai following him around like a shadow. But it was because of him that Inuyasha had finally understood what was going on, so he'd resolved to be nice (to an extent) until his tolerance was used up completely.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "Naraku's dead here, right? You said so. There's nothing for me to fight... nothing to do. I'm not needed."

Sesshomaru shook his head slightly. "The Inuyasha of this world passed away. Perhaps that is why you were brought here."

"What... to fill the gap?" He considered it. It was as plausible as any explanation, he supposed. If he was honest, he knew he wouldn't really be mourned back in his world. When he didn't come back out of the well, he'd bet his friends assumed he'd made it to Kagome and had either chosen to stay or was unable to come back. They'd be pleased for him and probably wouldn't ever know otherwise. They'd miss him, he supposed, but they wouldn't be unhappy. But here... here, people grieved.

But he found himself shaking his head. "Even if that's completely true, it's fucking unfair," he argued. "Shouldn't I get a choice in this? Fate or whatever the hell's behind all this can't just pick me up, dump me somewhere new and expect me to get on with it. I should have a damn choice about whether I stay or whether I go. I don't want to be _here_. I don't belong here."

Sesshomaru held his gaze a moment, then turned away from him in a way that had Inuyasha's ears lowering insinctively and he hated him for it. No one should be able to make him feel guilty about this, least of all Sesshomaru. Not even a different, apparently nicer Sesshomaru. It was his life, wasn't it? He got to choose where he went and where he didn't. He really didn't want to upset anyone, but this wasn't his home. Didn't they get that?

"Look," he said, voice sullen and ears still flat against his skull. "I can't be your Inuyasha. I'm not him. I don't remember the things he would have remembered and I didn't do the things he did. I'm a different person and I lived a different life. I have different relationships with everyone. I don't really know any of you, and you don't really know me. I can't just... slot in like the missing piece. I won't fit here."

For long moments, Sesshomaru said nothing. The heavy silence made Inuyasha feel extremely uncomfortable; despite knowing he made a good point, he still felt like he was somehow in the wrong and he really didn't like it. But finally, the daiyoukai sighed.

"I understand all of that," he finally said, but didn't turn around. "It's simply difficult to accept." Yeah, Inuyasha could relate to that all too well. "At any rate, until the well becomes active again, if it does, we all have to make the best of the situation. For now, we should return to the village. It's getting late."

With his ears still pressed into his hair, Inuyasha nodded, tucking his hands into his sleeves. If the well wasn't going to take him back, there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't even know what made the well work, let alone how to make it do as he wanted. He didn't know the rules. He just had to wait until it decided it was ready to let him go back.

Echoing his older brother's sigh, Inuyasha followed him back toward the village as the sunlight began to disappear entirely from the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...oops. Kinda forgot to update this. XD I was planning to update when I got home from my uncle's... which was over a week ago. Oh, well. Better late than never, right?
> 
> Anyway. Time for the plot to begin! Or what's better known as the "loosely planned out idea in my head", anyway.


	9. Chapter 9

Inuyasha rose with the sun. It was only his second morning waking up in this strange yet familiar village, but experience had already taught him that he was in extreme danger at this time of day. Wasting no time, he rolled silently to his feet and grabbed his Tetsusaiga in a single movement, tiptoeing so as not to wake Kaede as he made his way over to the window and climbed out.

A single bound had him landing lightly on the roof with barely more than a rustle, and immediately he hunkered down, laying as flat as possible among the stone weights on the wood, his ears perked forward, straining for sound. He couldn't hear anything just yet, but that was certain to change very quickly.

Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, he heard the hurried sound of bare feet on packed dirt path. Cautious, he flattened himself even more, ears laying against his skull, lest they happen to look up and spot him. He could hear their voices now, hushed and excited whispers as they plotted the day's torture for him.

"Do you think he's awake yet?" one, the only male in the group, asked.

"Maybe," said a female voice, considering.

"But if he isn't, we can wake him up," said another, almost perfectly matched voice cheerfully. The identical twin sister. It was only his sensitive hearing that enabled him to tell them apart by voice alone.

"That's true!" said Rin, who he'd discovered was the ringleader of the group. He heard the distinct sound of the canvas door being pushed aside. "Inuy -- Where's he gone?"

"Uncle Inuyasha!" the twins shouted in unison together, setting about the search immediately like dogs on a scent. "Come out!"

The youngest boy lingered closer to Rin. "Rin, where's Uncle Inuyasha?"

"I don't know... but I bet if we look hard, we'll find him in no time." He could almost see her beaming bright as sunshine, even this early in the morning. "Let's go look. Come on, you two. He can't be far."

 _Well, she's right about that,_ Inuyasha thought as he cautiously lifted his head just enough to see the four of them heading deeper into the village. He let out a soft sigh of relief, the trouble averted for now.

He watched them disappear around a corner. Miroku and Sango's kids; six-year-old twin girls and a four-year-old boy. He'd had no idea they even existed until they'd all piled on top of him in a giggling, shrieking mass of excitement before he'd even opened his eyes yesterday morning. Apparently, his friends starting a family was old news and not even worth warning him about.

After the first attack, he hadn't been able to get away from them. They'd been relentless, constantly hanging off of him and asking him pointless, nonsensical questions. He couldn't even escape because he'd had at least one of them holding onto his sleeve or the leg of his hakama or a huge clump of his hair at all times. By the time they'd gone to bed, he'd been practically a nervous wreck and had decided then and there that there would be no repeats.

And to make it worse, Sesshomaru had _laughed_ at him. Fucking _laughed_ at him. He'd never even _heard_ that happen before, but he certainly didn't appreciate it directed at him when he was in such obvious physical and mental distress. He hadn't even tried to help, not once. It turned out this Sesshomaru was still kind of a bastard.

Inuyasha rolled over onto his back and puffed out his cheeks. As he stared at the sky, still tinged pink with the fading dawn, he couldn't help but wonder what other huge surprises this world would throw at him today. He had a sinking feeling that a lot of days were going to knock him on his ass before he got used to how things had changed.

If not for... stuff... between him and Sesshomaru when he first arrived, this kid business might have been the most surprising thing he'd discovered so far. He'd _expected_ Miroku and Sango to have kids eventually, yeah, but... hell, it seemed really damn soon to him that suddenly there were three running around. It was taking him a while to wrap his head around it.

And this "uncle" thing.

And the ear pulling.

And everything else.

Maybe he should just go live in the forest for a while. At least out there, he could be fairly certain the trees weren't going to throw him for a loop by suddenly changing colour or some shit.

However, before he could make a move one way or the other, he felt two youki heading in his direction that made him tense automatically before he willed himself to relax. That was taking some getting used to, as well. He was really trying to act like he was fine with the two of them being around, but he wasn't sure he was succeeding.

One small benefit to the kids mobbing him was that neither Sesshomaru or Koga had been able to get him alone. And judging by the looks on their faces at times, they'd certainly wanted to. If he avoided the kids today, he'd spend it dodging youkai, too. Torn, Inuyasha sat up and looked toward the trees.

He could certainly escape for a while. Spend a few days calming down. But how calm would it really be if he was constantly running from one or even both of them? It would most likely just be delaying the inevitable. But in all honesty, he _really_ wanted to delay it.

Before he could make a choice one way or another, a shadow passed briefly overhead and then Koga dropped onto the roof in a crouch in front of him, leaning in close and blocking his view of the forest. Remembering what had happened when Sesshomaru got close, Inuyasha shoved a foot in the wolf's chest and scrambled back a bit. He would not be caught unprepared again.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Inuyasha snapped.

"You weren't thinking of trying to escape, were you, muttface?"

"Like fucking hell I was," the hanyou snorted, but he was worried by the sudden thought that maybe this Koga knew him better than the one from his world. He'd have to be careful... "You think I'm some kind of damn coward?"

Koga grinned toothily. "Good, 'cause we're gonna have a nice little chat. You ain't getting away from me again."

Inuyasha was opening his mouth to argue when he noticed Koga glance at Sesshomaru, standing in front of the hut, and his eyes naturally followed. He was just quick enough to see his brother (was he really his brother, if they were from different worlds? He hadn't worked that out yet, and it bugged him) hesitate, then give a barely perceptible nod. He turned back to find the wolf focused on him again. An agreement had been made, apparently.

So... Sesshomaru and Koga were close enough that they didn't need to talk to communicate. Right. He'd just acceept that. He had to learn to start taking this shit in stride or else he'd have a fucking breakdown before he got home.

"Inuyasha," Koga growled. "You better not be tryin' to think of some way out of this, you bastard. This is gonna --"

Inuyasha slapped a hand over the ookami's mouth. "Shut up!" he hissed. "Gods, you're fucking loud!" The hanyou's ears swivelled back and forth nervously, picking up the sound of the brats returning, lured by the commotion.

"Fucking hell. No peace and quiet here, ever," he muttered, then rounded on Sesshomaru, pointing at him. "You. If you're any kind of decent, you distract those brats, all right?"

For a moment, he could have sworn there was a glimmer of amusement in Sesshomaru's eyes, but it was gone with a blink. The daiyoukai inclined his head. "As you wish," he said simply, and turned to walk deeper into the village to meet the children.

Huffing out a breath of relief, the hanyou turned back to an increasingly impatient Koga. He sighed. "Ok, fine. Talking. But not here." He got to his feet and stretched. "Follow me."

~*~

He led Koga back to the well, which he sat on the ground leaning against. The Goshinboku here didn't feel like his and that made him vaguely uncomfortable, so this was the next most familiar landmark. Plus, once he got rid of Koga, he planned to see if it was working yet.

Koga flopped down on the grass in front of him. He glared suspiciously at the well, seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, and then let go of whatever it was he'd been planning to say about it. Then he just stared at Inuyasha.

Inuyasha tolerated this for a full thirty seconds. "For fuck's sake, spit it out!"

"This isn't easy to take in, you damn mutt!"

"No shit. Ya don't say. How the fuck d'you think I feel, dumbass?" the hanyou grouched, tucking his hands in his sleeves irritably.

Koga plucked a piece of grass and twirled it between his fingers. "Yeah, I get that it's strange," he said, quieter and suddenly serious. Inuyasha tensed almost immediately. "No one's trying to freak you out or any shit like that. It's just... we all got questions, y'know? Things we need to know to work it all out."

Wary, Inuyasha nodded. "Yeah... I get it. So whatever you wanna ask, just do it."

"Well, I just... y'know, I wanted to, uh..." The ookami shredded the piece of grass with his claws without even noticing. "Hell, I wanted to know about us, ok?"

Inuyasha blinked and the colour drained out of his face. His belly turned to lead. About him... and Koga. He wanted to know about it. That meant there was something here big enough that he wanted to know if it was the same where he came from.

Fucking hell, what did his other self get up to? First Sesshomaru, now Koga? What the fuck was wrong with this other Inuyasha? Well, whatever the case, he had to make it absolutely clear that nothing like that would _ever_ happen with him. Ever.

"Honestly? Hated you." Inuyasha bit off the words, back ramrod straight. "Absolutely hated you. Tried to kill you all the time. You tried to kill me, too. Couldn't be near each other without a bloodbath."

Koga absorbed that in silence. His fingers stopped twirling the shreds of grass left. Once again, Inuyasha felt irrationally guilty for making someone look so dejected, and his mouth started working again before he could stop it.

"But, you know, I'm sure you had... other people," he found himself saying. "Just me and you... no. We were never... together. Y'know, like that."

Koga's head came up. "Wait, what? Together? What d'you mean?"

"You know..." He made vague, uncomfortable getures with his hands. Koga blinked.

"You mean we had sex?"

"No! Not me and you! The... the other me."

"What the hell?" Koga growled. "I never slept with you, you ugly mutt. That was all Sessh --"

"Don't say that!" Inuyasha hurriedly interrupted. "Don't want that visual, thank you. Ever."

Koga pursed his lips. "Fine. But don't you go getting the wrong idea about me. I like girls."

Inuyasha glared at him. " _I_ like girls, too."

The ookami blinked. "Really?" he said, and Inuyasha felt like despairing a little. So everyone was just gonna assume he liked boning guys and not girls. Great. "So you and Sesshomaru really never --"

"No!" Inuyasha shouted. "Gods, no. The Sesshomaru I know tried to kill me basically every time we saw each other. He'd pretty much sooner stick his sword in me than look at me."

"Well, the Sesshomaru _I_ know liked sticking something in you, definitely," Koga quipped, a grin breaking out across his face.

Inuyasha howled and clapped his hands over his ears. "Oh, my fucking god," he moaned. "I _told_ you not to give me that fucking visual, you sick son of a bitch. I really, really fucking hate you."

Koga's grin melted away at that and Inuyasha once again felt that sneaky and totally unfair jab of guilt somewhere under his ribcage. Honestly, why did he have to feel so bad whenever he said something that upset these people? If you stripped it down to the core, he didn't even really _know_ them. They looked the same and there were other obvious similarities, but they were essentially different people. He shouldn't be feeling guilty.

But he was, and there was nothing he could do about it. He sighed heavily. "Ok, fine, maybe I over-exaggerated when I said I hated you earlier," he admitted reluctantly.

Koga's expression cleared a bit. "So we were friends?"

"Hell, no. I just mean... I probably wouldn't have killed you unless you started eating humans or some shit like that. And we worked together just fine against Naraku some of the time without killing each other. Mostly we just argued a lot, I guess."

The ookami finally seemed to relax, tossing the thoroughly destroyed scrap of grass to the side. "So it's not much different, then. That's good to know."

"Yeah, well, good for you," Inuyasha said. "Now can we stop this? You're kinda freaking me the fuck out with all this serious talk bullshit."

"Trust you to ruin the fucking mood, dog breath."

Inuyasha snorted rudey. "I don't want to have a mood with you, mangy wolf. Excuse me for being the only one not wanting to talk about feelings like a damn girl."

"You callin' me a girl, Inuyasha?"

The hanyou sniffed. "Might as well be, all this touchy-feely talking shit you've --"

Koga's hand suddenly smacked down on Inuyasha's head and pitched him straight forward into the dirt, face smushed against the grass and pressing deeper still as Koga ground down. "Don't let your guard down when you're insulting someone, asshole," the ookami taunted, sounding far too pleased with himself for Inuyasha's liking.

It took him a few moments to move around enough to take a blind swipe at the wolf. His claws met empty air, but that also meant the heavy pressure on the back of his head vanished and he could sit up. Spitting out grass, he glared daggers at Koga, standing a few feet away and grinning like an idiot.

"You're a dead wolf," Inuyasha growled as he got to his feet. "I'm gonna skin you alive and make a hat out of that stupid tail."

Koga just laughed. "Only if you can catch me, _bitch_." Then the wolf winked at him and ran into the trees.

Even angry as he was, the female dog reference wasn't lost on Inuyasha. With a vein in his temple throbbing, he gave chase, fully intending to thrash the bastard within an inch of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm back with an update! It's been absolutely forever since I posted, and the reasons for that are long and complicated, so I'll shorten it for you: took a break from writing, which turned into block. While dealing with said block, became terribly ill, the highlights of which included exhaustion and my throat closing up, making it rather difficult to breathe.
> 
> But I seem to be over all of that now, so hopefully there will be updates on a more regular basis now. I've even answered one question once and for all here; sorry for those of you hoping for a threesome, past, present or future... this just seemed to fit better. Koga's much more entertaining to write - and hopefully read - when they're frenemies, of a sort.
> 
> Possibly this has given you something else to think about instead: just why ARE Sesshomaru and Koga so close? Well, you'll have to wait and see for that one. x3
> 
> Until the next update, I hope you enjoy. <3


	10. Chapter Ten

Although this Koga was still pretty fast on his feet, he wasn't fast enough to lose Inuyasha. He kept the wolf in his sights as they raced through the trees back toward the village. Luckily, the brats were still out of sight when they hit the village, so Inuyasha had no problem racing straight through the middle of it without taking any unnecessary detours.

He dodged the villagers going about their daily business by leaping onto the roofs and running nimbly across them, hopping from one to the next and ignoring the people who pointed or called out to him. Almost as quickly as they'd entered the village, they'd come out the other side and headed back into the trees.

Instead of returning to ground level, the hanyou opted for running along the branches of the trees above Koga with a surefootedness borne of spending the formative years of his life escaping any youkai looking to make a meal out of a hapless child. 

Those memories were old and easily ignored when he had something to focus on, like the vulnerable back of a certain wolf sprinting below him. He waited until Koga had broken through the undergrowth into a small clearing, and then launched himself from his current branch. 

He hit his target dead center and the two of them went down in a rolling tangle of limbs. Inuyasha managed to keep his grip on Koga's back until he could pin the wolf flat on his stomach and rub his face deep into the mud and grass, grinning evilly the entire time. He didn't care what anyone said; revenge was sweet, he thought in satisfaction.

He only got to enjoy it for a few moments, however, before Koga managed to get the leverage to buck him off. He tumbled to the side, and a well-aimed kick to the shoulder knocked him properly off balance. While Koga swore under his breath and pulled bit of grass out of his mouth, Inuyasha righted himself and absently brushed the foot-shaped patch of dirt off his shoulder.

The blow hadn't hurt at all; it had glanced off him, if anything, but even then, it hadn't even been hard enough to bruise. The Koga he knew wouldn't have held back that much, and he wouldn't have thought anything of it. He gave as good as he got. But did this mean he was going to have to pull his punches now? Damn it, there were so many things different in this world.

"I don't know how I'm going to keep all this shit straight in my head," he muttered.

Koga looked up from where he sat across the clearing. "I can't be that different, can it?"

"You'd be surprised," the hanyou sighed. "Even this is a bit weird for me."

"What?"

"This." Inuyasha gestured between the two of them. "We're talking and there's no fighting. That sort of thing only happened when we were teamed up to fight Naraku back in my world. We didn't get along." Inuyasha paused. That gave him an entirely new thought. "Hey... how did you meet the other me?"

Koga blinked. "How we met?" The wolf scratched his chin. "Let's see... it's gotta be at least a hundred years ago by now. You expect me to remember that far back?"

"A hundred years?" Inuyasha gaped. "The other me put up with you for _a hundred years_?"

Koga picked up a small rock and threw it at him, which Inuyasha easily dodged. "That's what I should be saying," he mock-growled. "Now shut up and lemme remember... Oh, right, I guess it was after that big flock of Birds of Paradise came after me..."

Inuyasha watched as Koga's blue eyes became a little distant and hazy with memories as he started recounting the tale and, in spite of their usual antagonistic attitude toward each other that he hadn't yet gotten over, he found himself sitting quietly and listening as the story unfolded.

~*~

_Hauling himself up onto the bank of the river, Koga panted heavily, the muscles in his arms and legs quivering in exhaustion as he clambered slowly out of the rushing water._

_Ribbons of torn flesh snaked across his skin, leaving a faint pinkish tinge in the water behind him that disappeared into the currents as he collapsed in the mud and rolled onto his back. Every muscle hurt, and the cuts on his arms, legs, back and even face stung with the chilled, drying water and were aggravated by dirt and grit. His tail was a limp, sodden mass of fur._

_"Damn those fucking buzzards," he muttered to himself, teeth gritted against the pain._

_He'd been with a small hunting party when they'd been hit by surprise. Coming from downwind, no one had noticed the foul stench of the birds until it was too late and his first comrade screamed as he was lifted into the air._

_It had been chaos then. The ookami tribe were well-trained, but they'd been outnumbered at least five to one. Koga didn't even know what had happened to the others by now. Chances were, they were dead. He only wasn't a pile of bones in some filthy nest because of a stroke of luck. When one of them had grabbed him and taken off with him, he'd managed to slice into the leg deep enough with his claws to force the bastard to drop him straight into the river that ran through the mountains from the waterfall near the wolf den._

_Wounded and weakened, he'd been carried down river all the way to the base of the mountain before he'd finally managed to drag himself, stroke by painful stroke, to the riverbank._

_He looked up at the peak, where regular birds circled lazily overhead. He had one hell of a climb to get home. Probably too much for him to make in this state. If those damn Birds of Paradise found him up there, where there was less natural cover, he'd be dead. It was better to wait a few days until he'd healed and built up his strength before he made the trek back up._

_Not that it was much safer down here, he knew. Anything that smelt his blood might decide to try its luck making a snack out of him. He had to find somewhere sheltered to wait it out._

_Fucking birds, he thought angrily, and glared up at the peak._

_That was when he noticed the birds that had seemed to be circling were now flying in his direction. They were bigger than he expected but, while that made him suspicious, he didn't fully realise what he was dealing with until a sudden wind blew the foul stink of them his way._

_"Fuck!" he shouted, as he struggled painfully to his feet. Where he was, there was only sparse cover by trees and shrubbery. They'd easily be able to break through the branches and grab him, and then he'd be bird food. If he could just make it into denser forestry, he stood a chance of getting out of this alive._

_The only problem was that said dense forestry was twenty feet away, and Koga's legs felt almost numb with cold and blood loss. He could barely stand, but he had to run._

_He made it maybe halfway before he fell. Cursing colourfully, he tried to shove himself to his feet again, but his shaking legs couldn't support the strain. Behind him, he could hear the screeching of the birds as they closed in._

_Desperate, he looked toward the trees. About ten feet away. Could he make it if he crawled? Was there still time?_

_Oh, fuck that, he decided immediately after. If he was going to die, he wasn't going to spend his last moments crawling on his belly and trying to run from it. He'd face it head on like the warrior he was and take as many of the bastards with him as he could._

_He pushed onto his back again and sat up, claws flexed and a grim smile on his face. "Come on, you fuckers," he said softly to himself. "I'll tear you to fucking shreds..."_

_As if in response to the challenge, the Birds of Paradise - three of them - bore down on him, big enough combined to block out almost his entire field of vision, rank enough to make his nose twitch in disgust and a growl bubble up in his throat. Koga's entire body tensed, preparing to take the impact as they swarmed him._

_A ribbon of green light shot over his head, sailing straight toward the vaguely humanoid upper body of the first Bird of Paradise, punching a fist-sized hole through its blue-green chest. Between one blink and the next, the light - or whip, from the way it moved - slashed to the side and took the head clean off the second. The third strike slashed a gaping hole right across the grinning bird face of the remaining one's body, nearly slicing the thing in half diagonally._

_It was over in a matter of seconds. All three birds fell to the ground in a neat pile mere feet away from a stunned Koga, dead. He stared for a moment before realising someone else must be nearby and swivelled around to look._

_A tall, regal youkai stood behind him with flowing silver hair, skin pale as the moon and eyes bright as sunlight. One of his elegant hands was up at eye level, a bright green halo fading around two of his fingers. He seemed to be paying no mind to Koga, instead examining the dead Birds of Paradise dispassionately._

_"Vermin," he simply said._

_Koga raised an eyebrow. What was up with this guy?_

_"Right," he said. He was just going to agree for now. His mother always nagged at him to have proper manners, and he supposed saving his life demanded some gratitude. Besides that, he wasn't stupid enough to argue with someone who could kill three Birds of Paradise with one move and whose youki radiated off them in thick, powerful waves, now that he had the presence of mind to pay attention to it._

_This was not a youkai to piss off._

_"Thanks... for saving me. I'd probably be dead right now if you hadn't killed those fuckers."_

_Those gold eyes shifted to him, and Koga was suddenly struck by the feeling that he was being... measured in some way. He was left with the impression he passed... barely._

_"Probably?" the youkai murmured then, with a heavy implication he thought otherwise. Koga gnashed his teeth. "You are ookami from the northern tribe, correct?"_

_Swallowing with difficulty the urge to do something stupid and yell, Koga nodded sullenly. "Yeah."_

_"Your name?"_

_"Koga." Done with being polite when he wasn't getting any of it back, he glared and said, "And who the hell are you?"_

_A thin eyebrow lifted ever so slightly at his tone. "Sesshomaru, of the Western Lands."_

_Koga's eyes went wide. Fuck! This guy wasn't just a youkai; he was a fucking daiyoukai! And he'd almost mouthed off to him! Almost reflexively, he dropped his eyes._

_The daiyoukai walked closer to him. "You know your place, I see."_

_Koga bit the inside of his mouth, hard. Peace between the ookami tribe and the inuyoukai in the west had never been exactly easy. Relations between powerful canines tended to be strained where territory disputes were concerned. If he offended Sesshomaru, it could have serious repercussions; if the daiyoukai didn't kill him for it, his parents certainly would._

_Sesshomaru stopped by Koga's feet. There was a moment of silence, then: "Can you stand?"_

_Koga looked up, surprised, then startled to see the daiyoukai's hand held out to help him up. He hesitated a moment, then gripped it. He was pulled upright effortlessly with no visible exertion on Sesshomaru's part, and hardly any involvement on his. He was quite certain then that Sesshomaru could lift him and snap him like a twig if he so chose._

_"Thanks," he said uncertainly, reaching out to grab a low hanging branch to steady himself. It wouldn't do to collapse in front of the lord of a neighbouring territory._

_Sesshomaru eyed him dubiously. "I have doubts that you can walk."_

_Koga set his mouth in a stubborn line. "I'll manage."_

_After a long moment of silently watching him, Sesshomaru nodded almost imperceptibly. "Then follow me." He turned without another word and began walking away._

_The ookami blinked. Twice. "Wait, what?"_

_Sesshomaru kept walking. "Follow, if you can."_

_"Why?" Koga called after him, but took a step forward._

_The daiyoukai looked over his shoulder. "In the interests of maintaining peace between the north and west, you can hardly be left here in such a state. However, I am not going to escort you up a mountain. Currently, I am taking shelter nearby; you may rest and recuperate there."_

_Watching as Sesshomaru began walking again, Koga weighed his options. But what it really boiled down to was a choice between relative safety and sleepless nights watching out for hungry youkai. He didn't exactly trust the daiyoukai, but had to assume if he wanted to eat him, he wouldn't go to all the trouble of luring him with false pretenses. It wasn't as though he could get away._

_Taking a deep breath, he took another painful step after the retreating Lord of the West._

~*~

Koga paused, running a hand over his long black hair. Inuyasha managed to wait all of thirty seconds before his impatience burst forth.

"Idiot wolf, I asked how you met _me_ , not Sesshomaru," he complained, kicking Koga in the shin.

Koga retaliated by flicking another rock at Inuyasha's head without missing a beat. "I know that! I'm getting there!"

"Well, then, hurry it up!" the hanyou shouted as he glared and rubbed his head where the pebble had bounced off, having caught him by surprise this time. "I don't have all damn day, you know."

Koga rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because you've got so much shit to do," he snorted. When Inuyasha's eyes flashed, he sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll hurry it up. Where was I?"

~*~

_Koga woke up under a pile of furs to a loud voice echoing through the dim cave._

_"...the hell, Sesshomaru? Did you go take a bath in your shifted form or something? Whole fucking cave smells like wet dog!"_

_A thud and a yelp quickly followed. "That would be the ookami, not me."_

_"Wolf?" said the unfamiliar voice. "You brought a wolf in here? Picking up more strays, are you? That fucking toad is bad enough..."_

_"Are you implying you are a stray, Inuyasha?" If Koga wasn't mistaken, the daiyoukai sounded amused, even though he was pretty much being insulted. Maybe he wasn't as uptight as the rumours said._

_"The hell I am! I only hang around you because_ you _wouldn't leave_ me _alone." A pause. "I guess that makes you my stray, huh?"_

_There was a louder thud and a bigger yelp. "Off! Ow! Get off!"_

_"An interesting choice of words," Sesshomaru said casually, amusement rippling through his voice. "Perhaps an unconscious desire, Inuyasha?" A rustle of clothing, then a sharp intake of breath._

_Under his furs, Koga twitched. They weren't... were they? Of all things, with someone injured nearby, they couldn't be doing_ that. _Could they?_

_A quick, high gasp said yes, they were._

_Fucking hell, the ookami thought. In his tribe, this would be fine; he and whoever else was nearby would listen for the fun of it, then mercilessly torment whoever had been caught screwing once they were done. But this was different. Way different._

_What the fuck was he supposed to do about it? He could just pretend he was asleep and ignore it, but if the daiyoukai found out he'd listened to him having sex... He didn't even want to think about it. But if he interrupted, that might get him skewered, too. What the hell was he supposed to do?!_

_He had to let them know he was awake. Had to. How the hell was he going to stay quiet and ignore it? He wasn't particularly into pretty boys, but Sesshomaru was a knockout; it stood to reason whoever he was playing with was, too. Just imagining it was making him uncomfortable._

_He threw off the furs and got to his feet, pleased to find he was feeling stronger, and stumbled toward the light around the corner. Then just stopped, staring._

_Flat on his back was what looked like a hanyou in a plain, gaudy matching haori and hakama. The haori was currently open almost all the way to his waist, baring a smooth, toned chest of lightly tanned skin in great contrast to the pale, almost ethereal quality of Sesshomaru's._

_There were similarities between them, too, Koga noticed. Both had silver hair, though with a difference in shade; their eyes, though, were the same. The hanyou - Inuyasha - had no markings on his face or anywhere else he could see, and he certainly wasn't as finely boned, but Koga decided he was attractive enough anyway._

_Both inuyoukai (because if Sesshomaru and this Inuyasha didn't share blood, he'd eat his own tail) had turned to look at him; Inuyasha looked almost comically surprised, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape, but the daiyoukai was as composed as ever. In fact, he somehow looked as regal sitting there on top of Inuyasha as if he'd been on a throne._

_This moment of surprised observation lasted only a short while. Then, in a display of great perceptiveness, Sesshomaru rose gracefully from Inuyasha a matter of seconds before the hanyou seemed to convulse, yanking his haori closed again as he sprung to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at Koga._

_"For fuck's sake, warn someone when you walk in unannounced!" he shouted, a becoming flush on his cheeks._

_Koga only grinned. "Wouldn't a warning defeat the purpose of walking in unannounced? Idiot."_

_The hanyou flushed brighter. "Bastard wolf," he growled._

_"Stupid mutt."_

_Inuyasha snatched a sword out of its sheath and levelled it at him. "You wanna go for it?"_

_Koga looked at the blade. It appeared rusty and chipped, and hardly threatening. A piece of crap like that probably wouldn't even bruise him. He was about to say so when Sesshomaru spoke up instead._

_"Be silent, both of you." The daiyoukai looked between them. "Koga, go back and rest. Inuyasha and I will not be lingering long here and I can only assume you want to be able to travel by then." He then frowned at the hanyou. "Inuyasha, put the Tetsusaiga away. This is not the time for posturing."_

_While Inuyasha huffily put his little sword away, Koga stilled, suddenly remembering where he was and who he was with. He'd just insulted Sesshomaru's lover, right in front of him. The ookami felt lucky to have his head still attached._

_"Right... I'll just go back and rest," he agreed, deciding it was best if he just went to lay down and try to sleep for the remainder of his stay with these two. Politely walking on eggshells wasn't his style, and he was bound to screw it up eventually. Best to avoid it altogether wherever possible._

_He made his way back to the pile of furs and crawled under them, trying to get comfortable and rest for the night, but he was now too hyper aware of what the two inuyoukai might be doing to relax. He could hear them talking, but it was murmured and indistinct now that they were aware he could hear, and it was more annoying than insightful._

_He laid there for over an hour, trying to block it out, before the sound of bare feet over stone brought with it the smell of cooked meat. He sat up expectantly, suddenly realising he was hungry, and found himself face to face with Inuyasha. Said meat was dropped unceremoniously into his lap by the disgruntled-looking hanyou._

_"He insisted I bring you this, because gods forbid he ever bring anyone food himself. Arrogant bastard."_

_Koga raised an eyebrow and picked up the meat. It was a solid lump of boar's meat, pretty much exactly how he would have eaten it at home, but he doubted the hanyou knew that. Didn't manners dictate he at least be given something to rest it on instead of his legs?_

_"Thanks... I guess."_

_Inuyasha glared at him. "You don't like it, I can take it back. You can try to catch a bat instead."_

_"You would deprive an injured person of nourishment?" Koga asked casually, keeping his voice low. There was something about Inuyasha that just made it impossible not to ruffle his feathers._

_Inuyasha grinned evily, and Koga felt a slither of alarm. "If you're injured, you should_ rest _!" He punctuated this sentence with a fist to Koga's forehead, and the ookami knew no more._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's back! I've missed writing this story, but after doing so many updates of it in a row, I just felt I needed to take a break from it and poke at some other stuff. Now that I have, maybe I'll squeeze out another couple chapters before my next break.
> 
> I've actually had the flashback here (which is split into two chapters) written for ages. I literally just wrote the part leading up to it today. If not for my need to take a break, this probably would have been finished a lot quicker. Ah, well. Better late than never, right?
> 
> On an aside note, this is now officially my first chapter fic to reach double figures. Yay! XD
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the series Inuyasha, nor its characters.They are property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise, and Viz. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.


	11. Eleven

Inuyasha started laughing. Koga had planned to leave that part out, but Inuyasha had been looking uncomfortable at the revelations about his relationship wth Sesshomaru and so he'd put the other Inuyasha knocking him out back in last minute for this very reason. He decided it was a good choice; it made the corners of his lips kick up in a grin to hear Inuyasha laugh again. And though the laugh was surprised, it was real and straight from the belly.

"All right, all right," he said, rolling his eyes, while still secretly pleased. "It's not _that_ funny."

"Fuck, yeah, it is." But Inuyasha calmed himself enough to talk properly, absently wiping one eye. "So that's how we met?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"So how the hell did we become... friends... if things started off like that?"

"Ah, well, I was just getting to that." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hm... let's see... I guess if I had to pinpoint where it started, I'd say it was what happened a couple days later. By the next night, just before dawn, I was feeling stronger. Sesshomaru was off doing... something... and you were asleep by the fire. I'd had the entire day and night to work myself up over the Birds of Paradise killing my friends and I wanted my revenge..."

~*~

_Silently as he could when he was still injured, Koga crept toward the mouth of the cave, one wary eye on the annoying hanyou. He knew those fluffy puppy ears were just as sensitive as his, no matter how ridiculous they looked, so he had to be careful._

_If Inuyasha knew what he was planning to do, he'd probably try to stop him. And while he had no doubt he could take a hanyou with a rusty sword, even though he wasn't at his best, he couldn't waste the energy if he was going to kill some of the damn buzzards who took his friends._

_Holding his breath, he tiptoed out of the mouth of the cave, only letting it out again when he was a few feet away from the opening, and even then he made sure to keep it quiet. The last thing he needed was the mutt or Sesshomaru noticing him and forcing him back into the cave. He had to act quickly if he was going to avenge his packmates; the longer he waited, the further away the birds who killed them would get. He wouldn't let that happen. Couldn't let it._

_With a final glance back to make sure the hanyou wasn't awake, he started moving. He didn't dare run; though he felt he might be strong enough to do so, he didn't know if he'd be able to trek up the side of a mountain if he did. So he resolved to walk, ignoring the aches that lingered in his muscles and the voice of reason in the back of his mind that told him he should wait a day or two more._

_It was a long, slow trek, trying to conserve as much of his energy as he could, and the sun was bright in the sky by the time he was back in the mountains. He felt vulnerable and exposed, knowing what he was about to do, but he couldn't turn back at this point; the only thing he could do was move in shade and behind cover whenever the opportunity presented itself._

_He briefly wondered how he'd find the exact birds that killed his friends, but then he decided it didn't matter. They were all the same and would all kill any of his kin they could get their dirty claws on, so hunting specific targets wasn't necessary. So long as a good number of them died, his restless need for revenge would be sated and he'd be able to return home without the burden of guilt for not being able to save his friends._

_He'd been laboriously working his way upwards for roughly an hour before he finally found them - or, rather, they found him. One moment, the sky was clear, then all of a sudden the quiet was pierced with their grating shrieks and he was forced to dive onto a ledge to avoid being snatched up by a pair of viciously sharp claws._

_"Fuck," he muttered to himself, crouching behind a rock to make himself as small a target as possible. He'd stumbled upon at least half a dozen of them; how was he supposed to handle that many all by himself? He started to consider, for the first time, that this might not have been the best idea he'd ever had. He hadn't really thought about how he'd get one or two of them alone to fight._

_The light was suddenly obscured as one of the birds swooped in, and talons shot past his shoulder to graze his face as he ducked, stretching and grabbing at him. With a growl, he grabbed hold of it and bit down as hard as he could, ignoring the disgusting taste. The youkai cried out in pain and yanked its foot back, and the sunlight flooded back into Koga's hiding spot as it flew back up._

_"Stay back, ya bastards!" he shouted, but didn't dare poke his head above the rock to track their numbers and positions. They may look big and cumbersome, but he knew from experience how quick they could be when they wanted to._

_He was still trying to figure out the best course of action when the sunlight suddenly turned blinding, and all around him, the rock of the very mountain seemed to crack and split with an awful racket, joined by the panicked sounds of the Birds of Paradise, becoming a deafening roar. He was almost stupefied, completely at a loss for what was happening, unsure whether to count it as a good thing despite how it seemed to affect the birds that had him trapped here._

_"You still alive, you mangy wolf?" a voice called out, and Koga simultaneously ground his teeth in irritation and sagged in relief. Back up was welcome, even if it did come in the form of the rude hanyou._

_"No thanks to you!" he shouted back. "The hell are you trying to do?"_

_"I'm saving your ass, is what I'm doing," the hanyou retorted with a snort. "You can come out of hiding now."_

_"I'm not hiding!" Koga growled indignantly, immediately bouncing to his feet. His searching eyes quickly found Inuyasha standing further up the mountain. His demeanour had entirely changed; he stood and focused on his perch, and the rusty sword had transformed into an enormous weapon almost as tall as Inuyasha himself. He held it casually in one hand with the blade resting on his shoulder, and the last traces of the massive amount of energy it had expelled were just fading from it._

_Curious, Koga turned to look at the damage it had caused, and almost gaped. Above him and heading down at an angle from Inuysha's feet were a trio of deep gouges in the face of the rock, like the claws of some huge beast had torn into the mountain. Down at the bottom lay the corpses of several Birds of Paradise, similarly sliced into by whatever devastating power Inuyasha's weapon called forth._

_The remaining birds were hovering a distance away, and were letting out a repetitive chorus of shrieks and clicks. It abruptly dawned on Koga what they were doing and he turned to face Inuyasha again. "They're calling for others!"_

_"I know," Inuyasha said calmly, glancing at him. "That's why you came here, right? To kill them for the other wolves that died? If that's the case, why settle for just a few?"_

_Surprised, Koga stared. Inuyasha came to help him, not drag him back? He hadn't expected that from the irritable hanyou._

_When he said nothing, Inuyasha blew out a breath. "They're probably gonna be here soon. You might wanna climb up from there so you can actually join in instead of hiding."_

_Koga glared, but the damned hanyou was right, so he held his tongue and resumed his climb. By the time Inuyasha reached down to drag him up the last little bit, much to his irritation, more birds were coming into sight in the distance._

_Inuyasha changed his stance, planting his feet firmly in the ground and holding his sword in front of him. Wind currents began to curl around the broad blade as the hanyou grinned ferally at him. "I hope you're ready for this, fleabag."_

_"Ha! I was born ready, muttface," he retorted, but as more and more silhouettes of Birds of Paradise appeared in the sky, he began to rethink his bold statement. There was certainly a hell of a lot of them against just the two of them. Instinctively, the pair of them shifted until they were back to back as the birds began to surround them and braced for impact._

~*~

"From there, it sorta becomes a blur in my mind. Lots of fighting, lots of blood, seeming to go on forever. But suffice to say that we lived and they didn't, and I got to go home with my head held high, so it all worked out," Koga finished.

Inuyasha sat back, undeniably impressed with his other self. He might not understand this world's Inuyasha's choice of company, but he had this going for him, at least. That sounded pretty awesome.

"So..." he said at last. "Fighting off all those birds was some kind of male bonding experience and we became friends after?"

"Well, I suppose it didn't happen right away," Koga admitted, scratching absently behind one of his ears. "We kept running into each other over the years and I guess it just sort of... happened."

"Forgive me for interrupting," Sesshomaru said, melting out of the trees and causing both Inuyasha and Koga to jump a foot in the air in surprise, "but I do not remember it happening quite like that."

Inuyasha was the first to recover and explode. "The hell are you trying to do, kill us? Don't just [i]appear[/i] like that, damn it. You sneaky bastard. Why are you here, anyway?"

Sesshomaru, looking entirey unrepentant, merely lifted one of his shoulders slightly. "I came to tell you that the children were sufficiently distracted by play, if you wanted to return to the village. It is no fault of mine the two of you became so engrossed in your story time that you let down your guard."

Because he couldn't argue the point, Inuyasha settled for folding his arms crossly and focusing on something else. Besides, Sesshomaru had said something when he emerged that piqued his interest.

"What did you mean, that wasn't how you remembered it?" he asked the daiyoukai.

A glimmer of amusement warmed Sesshomaru's amber eyes. "Well --"

"C'mon, Sesshomaru, don't do that to me!" Koga immediately argued, and was summarily ignored as the older youkai pointedly turned more toward Inuyasha.

"As I recall it, the supposed battle at the end wasn't quite as epic as previously described," Sesshomaru explained. "From how the Inuyasha of this world later related the tale to me, with much laughing, there were only two Birds of Paradise, and the full might of the Tetsusaiga was not required to dispatch them."

Inuyasha blinked in surprise. Koga had lied to him? His first instinct was to be pissed at the deception when he was trying to get everything straight in his head, but after a moment of thinking about it, he realised it was actually... pretty funny. Breaking out into a grin, he looked back at Koga, who was a bit red in the face from anger or embarrassment, or a combination of the two, he couldn't quite tell.

"Damn it, Sesshomaru! Why'd you have to do that?" Koga growled.

Again, Sesshomaru rolled his shoulder elegantly. "It's his prerogative to know the truth, is it not?" But his reasonable answer didn't quite hide that he was enjoying himself, from what Inuyasha could see.

"I suppose it's not too different from how I remember us meeting," Inuyasha said thoughtfully.

Koga stopped his growling to look at him. "It's not?"

"Nah." Inuyasha's grin widened. "The gist of it was you getting your ass kicked by a bunch of those birds and me saving your hide with the Tetsusaiga and killing the really big ugly one." Ok, so maybe there was a bit more to it than that, and maybe Koga had been a bit outnumbered before he got there, but when you stripped it down to the bare bones, that was what happened, right? Close enough.

Koga glared at him. "You know what? Both of you are jerks. I don't have to put up with this crap." With that, Koga left them and stomped off through the trees, leaving Inuyasha laughing behind him.

When his mirth had passed and Koga's stomping could no longer be heard, Inuyasha blew out a breath. "You know... after all that, I still can't figure out what the relationship between us was. Were we friends? Did we just tolerate each other? Did we fight all the time?"

Sesshomaru, who had remained silent while Inuyasha laughed to himself, looked toward the village where Koga had disappeared from view. "The two of you enjoyed bickering, hurling insults and throwing the occasional punch. Getting through a conversation without digging at each other would require the situation to be very dire indeed. But you fought for and with each other on a number of occasions, and there was an unspoken trust between you to watch the other's back. All things considered, I would say you got along very well."

Inuyasha considered that. He supposed, given their personalities and how they fought over Kagome (if that even happened here... he'd have to find out, he guessed), that was really the only way they could get along. He remembered Miroku had once suggested that the real reason they fought so much was because they were so alike. He'd thumped the monk for so much as thinking it, but maybe there was a kernel of truth buried in it after all.

"Still, he must have been pretty hurt at the time to not be able to handle a couple of those scraggly birds. If it was that bad, I dunno why he felt he had to make up a story to hide it."

"Ah, well, I do not think that was what he wished to hide from you."

Inuyasha's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I believe he wished to hide his youthful folly," Sesshomaru explained.

"His what now?"

"At the time we first met him, he was but little more than two decades old. Scarce more than a pup, and largely inexperienced. His decision to go off on his own was grossly unplanned and a result of youthful arrogance and impatience."

"Wait, wait." The hanyou held up a hand to stop his brother. "Wait. Does that mean I'm older than Koga?"

"Yes, by more than a century. Is that not the case where you come from?"

"I... don't know," Inuyasha admitted, still absorbing the surprise. He was Koga's senior? And all the time the bastard had called him "pup" to piss him off... "I never thought to ask him."

"Perhaps one day you shall have the chance," Sesshomaru said, but he didn't sound pleased with the idea to Inuyasha's ears. He didn't know what to say to it; even if his brother was tolerable here, perhaps even somewhat likable, he still wanted to go back to his own world and didn't plan to stop trying to make that happen. But there was no need to keep rubbing that in his face, or anyone else's.

"We should return to the village," Sesshomaru said, changing the subject. "It will take some time for your friends there to not worry about whether they'll see you again every time you wander off."

Inuyasha nodded slowly, grateful for the change. "Yeah... yeah, all right." As long as the kids stayed distracted, he could handle it, he supposed. And so, side by side, the two inuyoukai walked back to the village in, to Inuyasha's mind, a surprisingly comfortable silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, look at that. I got it finished :D It's a bleedin' miracle.
> 
> I started poking at this yesterday, just knuckling down and getting it done bit by bit, and then today it finally got finished. I'm not sure how I got it done since it's SO DAMN HOT it feels like my brain has melted and will be oozing out of my ears any minute now. Dx Mysteries abound.
> 
> Next chapter, a very important question is answered: where's the other Tetsusaiga? I've had this asked at least a couple times now, so I figure it's high time to explain it all, hm?


	12. Twelve

The silence lasted until they reached the outskirts of the village. For Sesshomaru, it was a welcome experience. It reminded him of the many times they had walked or simply sat with each other, needing no words to pass between them. He had once been so close with Inuyasha that all they had needed to feel content was to simply be in the other's company, passing away their ample time in comfort.

Of course, it had not always been that way, he recalled fondly. It had taken many decades for Inuyasha to accept and even enjoy such things. For much of Inuyasha's life, he had been far too energetic and impulsive to sit still for long periods of time. Sesshomaru remembered how fidgety he would get merely by being watched for a while, how he would try his best to ignore it, then finally burst in a flare of defensive insults to hide his self-consciousness.

It had started as an unconscious habit, but soon became one of his favourite methods of needling the hanyou and sparking that energy to life, for he had enjoyed both aspects of his brother's personality. Although he knew the Inuyasha who walked beside him now was not his, he couldn't help but feel like he had stepped into the past because of these similarities. How this hanyou was reminded him very keenly of how he'd known him to be when they first became intimate.

He would admit that, at times, it tested his judgement. A part of him simply wanted to spirit Inuyasha far away from the well that had become an ominous presence in his mind, to take time to show him what they'd had, to make him his again, but he resisted. He knew that was not what this Inuyasha wanted from him, and it would pain him deeply to sour their relationship when the hanyou had finally accepted him enough to talk plainly and easily with him.

Such thoughts constantly chased themselves in circles in his mind, but he didn't show it. He had far more control than that.

He did, however, allow it to distract him at times, such as now. He'd walked on a few feet further before he realised Inuyasha had stopped, and he turned to face him. The hanyou was staring straight at the shrine, and Sesshomaru cursed himself for a fool for not steering them clear of it. It wasn't something Inuyasha needed to see.

Before he could say anything, Inuyasha began walking toward it. Sesshomaru sighed softly under his breath and followed him silently. There was little point now in trying to prevent it; he'd already seen it, and leading him away now would be nothing but an insult. He could only watch while Inuyasha came to grips with the reality before him.

It was a long time before Inuyasha spoke, during which he simply stared, not moving a muscle. Then, he finally let out a long, shuddering breath.

"It really brings it home, doesn't it? I knew, of course... Kaede told me about it, but... to see it like this... Fuck, it's like I can't take it in, you know? It's this huge pressure on me, yet I can't really absorb it."

Sesshomaru, sensing that was largely rhetorical, remained quiet, his own gaze resting on the grave marker that bore the name Inuyasha. He was flanked on either side by the miko who had been such important parts of his life, with Kikyo on the left and Kagome on the right.

"I know it happened differently in my world, but... I hate seeing her name here. It shouldn't be there. It makes me feel... cold, I guess. And something hurts," he finished quietly.

"I cannot imagine how jarring it must have been for you to come here and be told she had passed," Sesshomaru offered, prompting him gently to let it all out. And let it out he did.

"You have no idea," Inuyasha agreed with feeling, looking away at last to meet his brother's gaze. His eyes appeared a bit wetter than normal, but the hanyou was holding his compsure very well otherwise. "I felt sick, or like someone had just ripped my guts out entirely. I was numb and in pain at the same time, and all I could hold onto was the stubborn belief that she was still alive. She was where I left her, in her own time." He paused and sucked in a breath.

"I was terrified I'd failed her. You know, after we finally destroyed the Shikon no Tama, the well took her back to her own time. I went with her. But it brought me back almost right away... it was like it was just giving me the chance to see her to safety, and that was the end of it. I really couldn't handle that, so I just..."

Inuyasha trailed off, and Sesshomaru, realising he needed a bit of nudging, said quietly: "You went back in after her."

"Yeah," the hanyou said on a sigh. "I needed to see her. To be able to say goodbye, at least. Closure, I guess. I wanted more than that, but I'd take what I could get. Anything more than what I was given. But here is where I ended up, and you told me she was dead, and I was so scared that I'd messed everything up. I thought she'd had the same idea as me and come back, but the well had taken me forward in time and I'd missed being able to save her. I can't even describe how that made me feel."

Again, Sesshomaru sensed that this wasn't something he was supposed to engage in. Inuyasha was simply taking advantage of the urge and opportunity to purge his feelings to someone who would listen. It pleased him to know that he was the one the hanyou chose to confide in. It may well have just been coincidence, just a simple matter of him happening to be here as opposed to Kaede or Koga, but he chose to view it as a step in the right direction. It may not end with them being as they once were, but he was grateful for any increasing closeness they could achieve. He didn't want any distance between them.

Inuyasha seemed to notice the change as well, for he suddenly huffed out a little breath that sounded something like a laugh. "It's strange."

"What is?" the daiyoukai again prompted, though he had a good idea already.

"This." Inuyasha turned to face him, looking composed again, and waved a hand back and forth between them. "If someone had told me a week ago that I'd be pouring my heart out to my brother, I'd've laughed in their face. It would be absolutely impossible with the Sesshomaru I know."

Sesshomaru found himself frowning slightly. "It's really that bad?"

Now Inuyasha did laugh. "You have no idea. It's a long story, so I'll tell you about it another time maybe."

While Sesshomaru was left to mull over the relationship this Inuyasha had had with his other self, Inuyasha turned to look back at the graves, but this time he was calmer about his study of them. 

"So, this is really me," he finally said, pulling Sesshomaru out of his thoughts. "Even though I've been told the Inuyasha of this world is dead and I know this isn't really me, it's still... weird... to stand in front of your own grave, y'know? I'm right there. That's... that's strange."

Sesshomaru shook his head. "Inuyasha's body is not there."

Curious, Inuyasha looked back at him. "It's not?"

"No. That marker is a comfort for the ningen in the village only. I proposed, and they agreed, that our Inuyasha be laid to rest with our father in the Netherworld."

"You mean in that giant skeleton of his? That's... that's actually a really nice gesture."

Now it was Sesshomaru's turn to be curious. Inuyasha knew of their father's remains?

"You've been there?" he asked.

"To see our old man? Yeah. That's where I got Tetsusaiga."

"But only Tenseiga can open the path to the Netherworld. Did my other self assist you?"

Inuyasha barked out a laugh. "Him? Help me? Like hell he would. I did end up going there because of him, though. I didn't even know about the Tetsusaiga before that. But dad intended for it to go to me, I guess, since he left another gateway to the Netherworld in my eye. A black pearl. It's yet another long story, but to cut it short, you - the other you - were a jackass and tried to steal the Tetsusaiga for yourself by ripping the pearl out of my eye, travelling to the Netherworld, and attempting to steal Tetsusaiga, but it rejected you. You got really pissed, we fought, you turned into your true form, I cut your left arm off with Tetsusaiga. And all that was the first time I'd seen you in nearly a hundred years, too. Some reunion, huh?"

While Sesshomaru was reeling a little from all this cruetly done to Inuyasha by his other self, thinking that he deserved to lose more than just his arm, his brother proposed another question: "Hey, that's a point right there: there should be two Tetsusaiga's around now that I'm here. Do you have the other one?"

Grateful for the chance to think about something else, Sesshomaru shook his head. "No. It rests with Inuyasha in the Netherworld."

"Really? You didn't take it? Does the barrier reject you, too?" A pause that ended before Sesshomaru could respond. "No... it didn't before, did it?"

"I've never known Tetsusaiga to put up a barrier against me, but that was still no reason to take it. The blade was yours, no less so in death. Tenseiga and Bakusaiga are enough."

Inuyasha let out a breath and shook his head slowly. "So much is different here, I don't know if I'll ever wrap my head around all of it," he muttered.

"I am sure I'll feel the same the more I hear about the Sesshomaru you knew," the daiyoukai replied, somewhat unhappily. Inuyasha's fuzzy ears flicked as he picked up on the tone.

"Don't get down on yourself because of what he did. The Sesshomaru I knew was a first class asshole and he was homicidal to boot; I'd have rather had you as a brother, hands down."

Sesshomaru was flooded with pleasant surprise, but he wished it hadn't shown on his face, because moments later the hanyou's cheeks and even the tips of his ears flushed pink with embarrassment and he cleared his throat noisily.

"All right, shit, that's enough talking like fucking girls. Let's let everyone know we're back before Kaede organises a group to hunt me down or somethin' stupid."

With his arms behind his head, trying to act cool about it, Inuyasha stomped off further into the village, leaving Sesshomaru trail after him, both amused and touched. It was just like Inuyasha to say something unintentionally sweet or kind, then get embarrassed over his compassion and storm off. These similarities were going to be the death of him, but he would enjoy every minute of it until then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter twelve, yay! Some questions have hopefully been answered for some people by posting this. :D
> 
> I have to say, the reason this exists in a finished form is literally from reading comments posted by you guys. I've been thinking about continuing this for a while now since I know it's been a long time since I updated it, but I've been disheartened lately by some tragedies in the family and, on top of that, my old laptop dying and losing a lot of stuff I'd thought I'd had backed up, but hadn't. Progression on my many fics were some of the things lost that cannot be recovered, so all that combined hit my inspiration like a sledgehammer.
> 
> But while trying to get some inspiration to write something, at least, I re-read comments and reviews posted on many sites where this story is uploaded and it really... lit a fuse, one might say. I opened the document, looked at the half-written post there, and just knuckled down. I think it took, maybe... twenty minutes to write the rest and another five to polish it off? It just goes to show that every time you comment on my work, it really is helping. Thank you so much, all of you <3 There are some special people who comment on practically everything I write (SplendentGoddess, Snowfall, kmoaton to name a few) who deserve extra thanks and love from me, but everyone who takes the time to express how much they've liked my work has their own share and I love you all dearly.
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this. It's for you guys, after all.


	13. Chapter 13

Later that night, when he was sure Kaede was asleep, Inuyasha opened his eyes and sat up. The day had given him a lot to think about and he was finding it difficult to sleep. Settling Tetsusaiga across his lap, he leaned back against the wall of the hut and gazed idly at the moon through the window.

The most prominent in his mind was, of course, Sesshomaru. No matter how many times he told himself this version of his brother was different, it continued to surprise him. He kept waiting for a betrayal somewhere down the line; he couldn't help it. But all this easy, even comfortable interaction between the two of them did make him wonder if he should try for... something more between them.

He didn't mean the more that Sesshomaru wanted. Hell, no; that was all kinds of weird and he did his best not to think about it. Yet perhaps they could be friends for the time he was stuck here. Maybe even brothers. He would admit, to himself only, that a little part of him, deep down, had always wanted that.

It wasn't like he'd wanted Sesshomaru, specifically, to be his big brother. He certainly had at first; when Sesshomaru had first sought him out, he'd thought he'd finally have a family again after too long spent scrounging for human food and cowering from youkai who wanted to turn him into food. He'd wanted someone to be there for him, to care for him and, yes, to protect him. The fact that he escaped the encounter with the taste of his own blood in the back of his throat disabused him of the notion that that someone would be Sesshomaru.

He'd given up on ever having family after his mother died. He hadn't known about Sesshomaru at the time. Seeking him out and rekindling that hope had hurt him far more than the attack, in the end. He hadn't trusted anyone for a very long time after that. Not until Kikyo... and that had ultimately ended badly as well.

Yet people were surprised when he didn't immediately open up and let them into his world. He sighed.

Well, it was no use dwelling on all that when he had to wake up at dawn to avoid being attacked in his sleep. Shifting back to his furs, Inuyasha settled down and willed himself to sleep.

\---

Early the next morning, before the sun had even cleared the treetops, Inuyasha snuck out of Kaede's hut and began his daily trek to the well. He paused to frown for a while at the Goshinboku, still unable to feel any attachment to it whatsoever, before continuing on. He also frowned at the well for a moment, not expecting it to work, before jumping in, holding his breath on reflex.

Nothing. Of course.

He couldn't help but feel the same disappointment. He'd probably feel it every time he came here and jumped in. And he wasn't ever going to stop. He wanted to go home to the friends he knew, the life he'd had. He had no business being here and he wished the well would stop fucking with his life. He kicked it for good measure, as though that would somehow get his point across, and then climbed out, stretching in the early morning sunlight.

What to do with himself for today? It was amazing how easy it was to become bored. With nothing to fight, what was he meant to do with himself? He'd spent pretty much all his life roaming without a home, constantly on guard and waiting for trouble, spending more days than not fighting for the right to live, so this peaceful, settled life was very alien to him. It had only been a few days and he was already looking for something to kill to pass the time. He'd been the same when travelling the countryside with his friends, hunting down Jewel shards. If too many quiet days passed, he got restless.

Maybe he'd go patrol for a few days. Some travel might do him good. A change of scenery, some time to himself, a chance to really think things through and decide properly, once and for all, how he wanted to handle all this. At the moment, he was pretty much taking it day by day, blow by blow, and seeing how it went. Trying to be considerate of everyone's feelings was a real pain in the ass, too.

He supposed he'd better tell everyone, though, before they all lost their shit and went crazy looking for him. He could only imagine the crap he'd get if he ran off without saying anything.

With a course of action decided, Inuyasha took to the trees in favour of walking along the dirt path, hopping quickly from branch to branch as he made his way back to the village. He stopped dead, however, just at the perimeter, ears straining.

He could hear laughter, and excited cries of mum and dad, and he knew Miroku and Sango were back. What was he supposed to do? With Kagome gone, they were the most important people in his life, though like hell he'd tell them that. What would he do if they were different? He could handle the trip that was the new Sesshomaru, and even Koga was tolerable, but he didn't know if he could handle viewing his friends as strangers.

He considered just leaving on his patrol. He didn't care if it was the coward's way out and ultimately just delaying the inevitable; he felt suddenly very worried and uncertain, and he couldn't help wanting to avoid the situation altogether. It was, after all, how he'd faced the problems he couldn't kill in the past.

But he couldn't do that, could he? Even now, someone could be telling Miroku and Sango that he was here. How would they feel if today was the day he disappeared without even seeing them? He couldn't do that. Not without tearing himself to shreds with guilt, anyway. Inuyasha sighed; this caring for people bullshit was forever a pain.

He dropped to the ground on the edge of the village, but didn't walk in immediately. He wanted to get a feel for the situation first, decide how he was supposed to handle it, try to figure out how much Miroku and Sango had been told. Hopefully someone would make the full situation clear to them and save him having to explain himself yet again.

Carefully and quietly, he skirted around the edges of the village, ducking behind one hut after another as he weaved his way closer to where his friends clearly were. He peeked around the corner of a hut close enough to see the gathered crowd, but not quite hear the conversation... and found himself looking straight into Sesshomaru's eyes. The daiyoukai had a brow raised in question.

Inuyasha shook his head quickly. Sesshomaru seemed to sigh, but he inclined his head before turning back, and the hanyou let out a quick sigh of his own in relief. Safe and hidden for the moment, Inuyasha took the opportunity to look at his friends and the differences that were already apparent.

Sango, while still looking young, looked more... mature, he supposed. There was something... fuller about her, though he was far from an expert in such matters and couldn't quite put his finger on what it was he was seeing, but she still appeared to be strong and fit as ever. Hiraikotsu was dangling over her shoulder from two of her fingers like always, despite the weapon's formidable weight. He didn't understand it in the slightest, but maybe these subtle changes were just what happened to women after they became mothers.

Miroku, on the other hand, he understood perfectly well. The lecher had developed a bit more muscle mass, fully growing into an adult body, though he still remained smooth-cheeked and with a youthfully mischievous twinkle in his eyes that told Inuyasha right away he'd yet to give up that side of his personality (which he'd never admit was a bit of a relief). He'd also grown his hair out a bit; bangs fell into his eyes, and the tail of his hair fell past his shoulders now.

The twins and their younger brother were shouting and cheering as they clambered all over Miroku, who had gone down on his knees to greet them, voices mixing together into a din that was incomprehensible, and even Rin, standing with a handful of Sesshomaru's haori, was joining in the noise. Laughter was filling the air, and Inuyasha's eyes bugged a little as his brother bent slightly to receive a one-armed hug from Sango and an affectionate kiss on the cheek. But despite how jarring it was to see, for once, it didn't leave him feeling unsettled. It actually seemed... nice. Like family, perhaps.

He let it go on for a few minutes. For perhaps the first time, he fully realised and appreciated that these people - so familiar, so different - truly had bonded in ways he'd never expected. And hell, after seeing what looked like a genuinely pleasant exchange of greetings between Miroku and Jaken, nothing he saw here should ever surprise him ever again.

The shift in mood, when it came, was obvious. He saw Rin speak up just once, and then a quiet descended. The smiles disappeared off Miroku and Sango's faces, replaced with near identical looks of surprise, disbelief, and just a sliver of hope. Sesshomaru's gaze flickered over to him, and this time, it was Inuyasha's turn to sigh and nod. They knew now, so there was little point in hiding. Since that was what he could now hear Rin telling Miroku and Sango he was doing, there was even more reason to come out.

He stepped out from behind the hut, arms folded across his chest and a half-hearted scowl on his face. "I'm not hidin', ya damn brat," he lied. "I was just waiting until you lot settled down and stopped making so much noise."

He had planned to say, before anything else happened, that he wasn't the Inuyasha they knew, that he came from another world and was just dumped here by the clearly sentient and spiteful well, but the words and the wind were both knocked out of him by Sango, who collided with him so hard he was knocked back a few steps and clamped her arms around him so tight he started to feel a little sorry for Miroku.

She sobbed into his shoulder, and Inuyasha, whose first, instinctive thought had been one of escape, relented and put his arms around her. It was strange to him (the only women he'd ever hugged were Kikyo and Kagome, and they, on some level, were like the same person), but it wasn't unpleasant. It was actually bringing a lump to his throat, being confronted like this with how much they'd missed their Inuyasha, and so he didn't protest when Miroku's arms came around them as well. He went with the momentand leaned his head against Sango's, his ears low on his skull and his eyes closed, and let himself enjoy a rare moment of closeness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look at that. I did a thing you wanted me to do. :D
> 
> This chapter is shorter than I originally intended. There was meant to be a fair amount of dialogue in this chapter, but when it finally came down to writing it, I realised there would be a lot of repetition involved as Inuyasha explained, yet again, that he wasn't who they thought he was, and the shock and confusion that followed... so I decided to cut that for the sake of not being boring. From there, I just sort of... let it write itself, really. I came to the chapter ending at random and I liked it enough that I cut it there. I did fill out a little bit more to add a bit of length, but I think that's a nice place to end it with an emotional reunion. ^^
> 
> Hope you enjoyed.


	14. Chapter 14

The sun had almost set when Inuyasha managed to slip away for some much-needed solitude. He'd held on as long as he had for the sake of not stepping on anyone's feelings, but he still wasn't good at dealing with large groups of people. Being the centre of attention only made it worse for him. So it was with more than a little relief that he sat himself down in the shade of a hut away from the main group and rubbed his stiff shoulders.

He would have much preferred to go for a walk in the forest and get away completely, but he was getting the hang of minding his actions and he figured it might not go over well if he vanished completely. Better to stick within hearing of his friends. Sango, especially, had seemed reluctant to let him out of her sight for too long, like he might vanish suddenly. Her eyes had tracked him almost as much as they had her children, which made him uncomfortable for a myriad of reasons.

Inuyasha stretched his legs out and leaned back against the hut, blowing out a breath. He couldn't help but worry that things were getting... complicated. With every passing day, he felt a little bit more relaxed here. He began to feel more comfortable with the people here. Despite the differences, he was more acutely aware of the similarities - the familiarities - they had to the friends in his own world. Now that he knew these people were real as much as he was and would miss him when he left, a tiny, tiny part of him had started to feel bad about that.

If the well took a week, a month, a year to regain its power and send him back home... how would he feel then? Would he really be able to take that step? It worried him that he might hesitate - or worse - when the time came, and that bothered him. A lot. He didn't belong here, he knew that, but it was proving to be alarmingly easy to grow attached to the place. Maybe it would be best for everyone involved if he took a step back from everything...

As if summoned by that very thought, he became aware of soft steps moving in his direction, accompanied by the gentle clinking of metal, a sound so familiar he didn't even need to guess that it was Miroku with his shakujou. Trust the monk to notice his disappearance and skillfully seek him out.

He remained silent as Miroku sat next to him and laid his staff on the ground. The monk chose to sit cross-legged with his arms folded, close enough that their shoulders were touching. Ordinarily, Inuyasha might have stubbornly shifted away just on principle, but he chose to allow it now. It was comfortingly familiar (he was willing to ignore the concern for the moment) to sit with Miroku like this.

Long moments passed in silence this way. Finally, Miroku spoke.

"This is all seems so strange."

Inuyasha huffed out a laugh. "You're telling me. I've been saying that a lot lately myself."

Miroku laughed with him. "I can only imagine how much worse it is for you," the monk agreed. "I look at you, and I know you're not the Inuyasha I remember, but... the mind is easily fooled. It's very easy to forget you're not him."

Inuyasha's shoulders hunched a little at the reminder, but he forced himself to put it aside. "It's the opposite for me," he said instead. "Most of you are different in little ways that are a bit jarring. Some of it can take a while to get my head around."

He turned his head to look at Miroku. "Like this." He reached out and flicked the ponytail dangling down Miroku's back. "What's this about?"

Miroku stroked a hand down his hair defensively and countered: "Says the one with enough hair to make an entire other hanyou. There's nothing wrong with my hair. Besides," he added primly, "Sango likes it."

"And there's the truth of it," the hanyou declared triumphantly. "It's not for style or because it looks good. It's to help you get lucky. Some things never change."

That remark surprised them both into silence for a moment, then they laughed together. Inuyasha would freely admit he found it as comforting as the idea that his friend hadn't changed, and that got the wheels turning in his mind.

Perhaps it was remembering the conversation he had with Koga, or maybe it was just the constant urge deep inside to know exactly what was different about the people in his life, but Inuyasha suddenly found himself asking again: "So, how did we meet?"

When Miroku looked at him quizzically, the hanyou shook his head. "I mean... how did you meet the other me? What happened?"

The monk's eyes told Inuyasha he understood the reasons behind the question, but he kept silent about it. Instead, he tilted his head back until it rested against the hut and gazed up at the heavens, a smile teasing his lips.

"That's a bit of a strange story, actually," he said. "It wasn't my finest moment, either."

Inuyasha could recite at least a dozen moments off the top of his head from the few years he'd spent with the monk that weren't his finest, but chose to keep his peace. He could always point them out later, if an opportunity arose.

"What happened?" he asked again.

"Well... I suppose one could consider me something of a rogue in my youth," Miroku began. "I didn't strictly follow the teachings of Buddha. Hunting Naraku alone didn't allow for such things, and I fell into the convenience of bad habits. When our paths crossed, I was hunting for fragments of the Shikon no Tama, like you were. I thought that it would lead me to Naraku, one way or another. I regret to say I... I stole the fragments of the Jewel you had collected from Kagome, who was travelling with you, as well as her iron cart."

Miroku let his head roll forward again. When he took in Inuyasha's slack-jawed expression of shock, he seemed to mistake it for horror, for he hurriedly continued: "I assure you, it wasn't selfishness or greed that drove me. I had good intentions at heart, Inuyasha. I could sense the demonic blood in you as easily as I could the presence of the shards, and I assumed you were attempting to restore the Jewel for nefarious purposes. Why a human girl would be helping you, I didn't stop to puzzle out, but I thought it would be in everyone's best interests if I removed the shards from your possession."

Miroku sighed. "Had I any inkling of how our paths would merge from then on..."

Sensing the monk was likely to launch into a long-winded apology, Inuyasha snapped himself out of his stupor and waved both hands dismissively at him. "Oh, stop it. How full of hot air are you?"

Miroku blinked at him and Inuyasha flicked his ears, tucking his hands into his sleeves. "Why're you being all mopey about it? Past is past, right? Besides, I gave you hell when you did it to me, so I'm sure the other me got his licks in, too. It's done with."

"It happened the same in your timeline?"

His timeline? Well, that was as good a way as any to put it, Inuyasha supposed. He'd been thinking of it as two separate worlds out of gods knew how many and he preferred it that way; thinking about rips in the fabric of time just made his head hurt.

"Word for word," he agreed, putting the thought aside for now. "Right down to why you stole the shards from us."

"That's fascinating," Miroku murmuered. "Is it possible the timelines overlap and certain events happen to us all...?"

It was clear Miroku was talking to himself more than present company at this point, but Inuyasha supplied his input regardless: "Not everything's the same. A lot of it's different. I didn't meet Koga a hundred years ago. I met you and Sango before Koga. And I sure as hell didn't spend decades wandering the countryside with Sesshomaru... on the rare occasions we came close to each other, I stayed the hell away from him. If I was unlucky enough to come face to face with him, he was more likely to try and kill me than chitchat."

Miroku focused on him again at that, making a visible effort to put aside the line of thought he'd been following, and nodded slowly. "Yes... I noticed there was distance between the two of you. He said himself that you weren't close to the Sesshomaru in your timeline, but... he never mentioned it was quite that bad. It must be difficult for him..."

Inuyasha couldn't help the exasperated sound that rose up in the back of his throat. "Look, I realise this Sesshomaru is a decent guy and it must be really shitty for him, but it's not all roses for me, either. Do you have any idea how mortifying it is to not only land in a strange new world, but be greeted with a kiss from your own brother? A brother you hate and have no fond feelings for whatsoever, let alone... romantic ones. I'm not getting any sympathy for my situation over here."

"Ah... Yes, well, I admit I never quite thought of it that way. I suppose it's too easy to remember how things once were..."

"And the worst part," Inuyasha continued, almost talking over Miroku as his much needed rant gained momentum. "The worst part is that I have absolutely no interest in men. None! Koga seemed absolutely shocked when I told him... and that's a kick in the gut right there. No one is even considering I might prefer the company of women because my other self was up to gods knew what. Kagome was the only one for me and that is not going to change."

The monk's body seemed to jerk a bit. "Kagome?"

Immediately, Inuyasha's stomach sank. That tone, the shock on Miroku's face, did not bode well. He waited, tense, staring silently at his friend until Miroku finally cleared his throat.

"Ah... well... while it was true Kagome harboured affections for you in the beginning, she ultimately had to face and accept the fact that you were out of her reach. Eventually, she acknowledged and reciprocated the feelings of... Koga."

The hanyou's brain suddenly voided itself of all other nonense as he absorbed this one piece of information. A distant, reasonable voice said that he really shouldn't be so shocked; he knew that Koga had wanted Kagome almost from the moment he met her, but he had genuinely thought it had been a pure impossibility. Whether it was arrogance or disdain for the wolf, he had somehow managed to convince himself that, even if he somehow was no longer in the picture, Kagome would never have given in to Koga's advances no matter how many times he tried.

However, this reasonable voice with its logical response was swiftly being drowned out by one word echoing around his head, growing louder and louder until it suddenly burst free of his lips.

"WHAAAT?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in uploads; I had been trying to keep up with at least one update a month and I was doing well for a little while, but then a lot of things happened, including me starting a new job very recently, so my schedule and my focus has been all over the place lately. Hopefully over the next few weeks, I'll be able to settle down into a routine and have more time for writing.
> 
> Speaking of which, if there are any unanswered questions you'd like to have explained soon in the story, let me know. Or if you're wanting a different story altogether updated, let me know about that, too. I'll do my best for you. ^^
> 
> Hope you've enjoyed this chapter :)


	15. Chapter 15

"WHAAAT?"

The monk winced and clapped his hands over his ears to try and stifle the volume, while Inuyasha stared at him wide-eyed, mouth agape.

“Well… I wasn’t quite expecting that reaction,” Miroku said, tentatively lowering his hands after a few moments had passed without threatening his eardrums.

“You’re telling me Koga had a thing with Kagome,” Inuyasha said. “How the hell did that fleabag wolf manage to win her over?”

“I remember you asking me that question once before,” Miroku mused.

So his other self had been equally shocked by the news. Finally, this other Inuyasha showed some promise of sense.

“What did you say back then?” the hanyou pressed.

“I told you… it was to be expected,” Miroku sighed. “She was a young girl coming to terms with the fact that the object of her affection, being one obstinate hanyou, was never going to return her feelings for him. Then, in sweeps a roguishly attractive wolf –“

“Roguishly attractive? Seriously?”

“—who professes his undying love for her every chance he gets. It seems obvious to me what would happen.”

Inuyasha took a moment to quietly absorb it. And damn it all if he couldn’t see it happening exactly that way, too. He wondered briefly if his other self had realised what was happening and felt guilty or if he’d existed in a bubble of obliviousness, totally unaware of how he was hurting Kagome.

Then he realised Koga had really had it worse than all of them. He’d lost Kagome for a day and felt like everything had fallen to pieces; how would it feel to lose her for years? Inuyasha’s ears lowered a little at the thought. He didn’t normally feel sorry for the bastard, but this… this, he could sympathise with.

“No one told me anything about that. Not even Koga. So he’s just been alone all these years without her?" 

“Alone?” Miroku blinked. “Oh, no. No, he finally found a mate a few years later.”

Inuyasha held up a clawed hand. “Hold on. Just hold on right there.” That sneaky, lying, wolf… “Wolves mate for life, he told us that himself. And you’re telling me that Koga has a mate right now, despite supposedly loving Kagome first.”

Miroku made a face that clearly showed his discomfort. “It’s a… unique situation he found himself in,” the monk explained. “When he was with Kagome, there was no…” His voice trailed off, and the monk made some vague hand gestures to try to explain what he meant.

It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. “Sex,” he finished bluntly.

“Well. Yes.”

“The infamous lecher, now father of three, has trouble saying the word sex.”

“I was _trying_ to be delicate about it, but yes, that was what I meant. There was no mating involved, as it were, so therefore he wasn’t bound. It was more a… courtship with Kagome."

Inuyasha settled again, no longer planning to beat Koga’s face into the ground. He could accept that explanation, and hearing it from Miroku, he was satisfied that it was true.

“It didn’t really make that much of a difference to the group,” Miroku continued. “The dynamics didn’t shift all that much; there was already quite a mixed bag of characters in our group by that point and, having prior history with you and Sesshomaru, Koga appeared fairly often. All that really changed was the frequency of his appearances… and there were two idiots blindly leaping to Kagome’s defence instead of one – ow!”

Inuyasha casually withdrew his elbow, which he had lodged between Miroku’s ribs. “You’re the idiot for not seeing that coming,” the hanyou deadpanned. He then decided to go with the lightening mood. “So who’s the unlucky woman he finally settled down with?”

“Ah. Another wolf named Ayame. Apparently he made a promise to her when she was a child and she wasn’t going to let him out of that one easily. Something to do with a rainbow and a flower. I maintained only a polite interest at the time, so the details are vague."

Inuyasha could read between the lines well enough to guess why. "She didn't much care when you flirted, huh?"

The monk folded his arms and sniffed. "She didn't even give me a chance to start. She was focused only on Koga from the moment she appeared."

That name, though... Inuyasha frowned. Ayame… Ayame… He knew the name from somewhere. And the story sounded vaguely familiar. Where did he know her from? This was going to bug him forever.

Wait…

“Red hair? Green eyes? Or… maybe blue?”

Miroku looked vaguely surprised. “Green. You know her?”

“Yeah… Yeah, I think so. In my world, she saw Kagome as a rival and attacked her.”

“Yeah… that happened here, too. Only for us… it was a legitimate rivalry. Somehow, though, Kagome managed to come out of the encounter with a new friend. It was quite impressive, really.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me. It may have even happened in my timeline, too. I don’t honestly remember that much; she wasn’t around often.”

Miroku nodded. “She still rarely visits. She stays at their home in the mountain most often, looking after their pups.”

Inuyasha got another jolt. Koga was a father? Really? He supposed it shouldn’t really surprise him, though. Naraku was gone; everyone had a reason to move on, to finally plan for the future. He supposed he was the only one who liked the idea of everything remaining the same. He’d never wanted his friends to leave. He’d never wanted them to grow up… or grow old.

But he wasn’t going to bring down the mood – or pity on himself – by mentioning it. Instead, he forced his lips to curve into a smirk. “So, the mangy wolf got tied down by kids, too, huh? Serves him right. How many?”

“Five,” Miroku said. “Four boys and a single girl, if you were wondering. Daddy’s princess… she already has him wrapped entirely around her finger and he doesn’t even realise.”

The hanyou’s eyes bugged a little. “Five? _Five_? How quickly did he jump on this Ayame after Kagome?”

He couldn’t help his tone being a little hostile. It didn’t matter to him that she was gone here or that she wasn’t even his Kagome – he couldn’t let that kind of insult slide. If she’d had real feelings for this Koga and he’d moved on that fast… Maybe he would have to pound the bastard’s face into the ground after all. 

But Miroku waved a hand dismissively. “Come on, now, you know it wasn’t like that. Koga was as torn up about Kagome as anyone. Wolves have _litters_ , Inuyasha. She had twins, then triplets. And from what I hear… it was her who jumped him, not the other way around.”

Inuyasha pulled a face and held up a hand to stop that topic going any further. “I really didn’t need to know that last part."

While Miroku laughed, Inuyasha mulled over what he'd heard. So all of them were parents, it seemed. Miroku and Sango had their three, Koga had a veritable brood... even Sesshomaru showed parental tendencies that boggled Inuyasha's mind to no end. Just the night before, at meal time, he'd watched with fascination and not a small amount of surprise as Sesshomaru pulled a protesting Rin closer to him so that he could wipe a smear of food from her cheek using the sleeve of his haori. And he was the only one who found it strange and unnatural.

He really was trying his best to accept it. To stop trying to compare everything to his own world... or timeline... or whatever it was. It was never going to be exactly the same, no matter how many similarities. These people who were so familiar to him were essentially their own people with different quirks and interests and concerns. A certain someone's personality was almost a mirror opposite.

The hanyou frowned. His thoughts circled back to Sesshomaru quite a lot, didn't they? Before, he barely gave him a spare thought unless he was within concerning proximity. It had to be because he was so different, so... approachable now. It was some sort of cautious fascination that kept his brother on his mind.

As though summoned by that very thought, the whisper of Sesshomaru's haori announced his presence just moments before he spoke into the companionable silence that had settled on Inuyasha and Miroku.

"Sango is becoming increasingly concerned with your absence, Inuyasha," he explained.

Inuaysha managed to smoothly cover his jolt of almost guilty surprise. "What, were your ears burning?" he asked sourly, looking up at him.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Nothin'." Inuyasha waved it away; explaining what he meant would have been horrific, so he was glad Sesshomaru hadn't understood.

Miroku worried his lips. "We'd better go back," he said. "We don't want to give her any reason to be angry."

The hanyou slanted a look at him. "She terrifies you, doesn't she?"

"Yes," Miroku admitted unabashedly.

"Me, too," Inuyasha agreed, thinking of how often he'd seen Sango lose her temper. But then, because he decided it was a little pathetic, he added: "A little, at least. Either way, let's head back."

The monk was already standing and held out a hand to help Inuyasha up. Instead of being stubborn, he accepted it, then stretched when he was on his feet. As he and Miroku headed back toward the friendly glow of the fire, Inuyasha forgot to be wary when Sesshomaru fell into step beside him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been absent! I started a new job, and even though it's not full time, it's so... busy... I come home and all I want to do is flop on my bed and not move. So that's what I usually do. But piece by piece, I've been writing little bits here and there, so I've not disappeared completely.
> 
> I know what I want to happen in this story in terms of what happens between Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, but other parts of it are fluid and I can change them as and when I want, so if there's something you want explained or even have a suggestion for something you'd really like to see happen, do tell me. I read literally every comment I get, and try to reply to them all where I can, so I'll take everything under advisement.


	16. Sixteen

The day after the party was quiet and uneventful. This was mostly thanks to the sake consumed by the ningen of the village and the resulting headaches and nausea experienced by the vast majority of them, his friends included. Sango, at least, had tried to rouse herself for the sake of her children, but an extremely irritable Miroku had wrestled her back into their futon and she hadn't put up more than a token show of resistance. Inuyasha had then been rudely ejected from the hut with a string of growled curses following him.

Thus it had fallen to the older and wiser of the group to corrall the energetic children and keep them in line throughout the day - by which he meant Kaede and Sesshomaru. Both had attempted to recruit him, and both times he had refused. He'd stubbornly remained up a high tree, away from the dozen or so screaming brats, and watched with not a small amount of amusement as Sesshomaru oversaw Jaken trying to keep all the kids in sight, occasionally shooting glares up at him.

It served him right for not intervening when the humans kept drinking and drinking. It wasn't as though they hadn't noticed what was going on; neither of them had touched a single drop of alcohol. It took far greater quantities to intoxicate them thanks to their inuyoukai blood, so it would have been pretty pointless to indulge. And besides, for different reasons, neither of them were the type to get drunk in the first place.

They'd caught a lucky break by late afternoon. Several hungover humans to whom the brats belonged were able to rouse themselves out of bed and start taking responsibility for them, at least in part. Anything overly energetic still seemed beyond them, but he'd often heard it said it was the thought that counted. It seemed like a pretty pointless sentiment to him - what good did thinking about helping do for anyone? - but then again, he'd always been a man of action. He didn't think about doing things, he _did_ them.

Still, he'd thought, as he watched the activity from his perch above, Sesshomaru did seem to be pretty good at handling the kids. He had a way of looking at them that stopped any bad behaviour in its tracks, yet was mild enough that they weren't afraid of him. And somehow, he managed to look calm and regal despite the noise and distraction, look engaged and interested whenever the kids brought him a flower or a funny shaped rock to look at.

That was why, when he stumbled upon Sesshomaru and Rin the next morning, he supposed it shouldn't surprise him that he was displaying the utmost patience with her as well. Inuaysha knew, he damn well _knew_ , he would rather have faced down a horde of ravenous youkai than let a little girl braid his hair. Especially not when she intended to weave a small meadow's worth of flowers into it, as Sesshomaru had evidently suffered. Yes, that was a torture it took a special kind of tolerance to endure.

Inuyasha made sure he stayed hidden while he committed it to memory. When he finally managed to get back through the well, he would be sure to remember it whenever he faced his asshole brother. Sitting on a fallen log, looking strained, his normally perfectly neat hair unevenly braided down the length of his back and decorated sporadically with little white, yellow and blue flowers no doubt picked from the grass at Rin's feet, Sesshomaru hardly looked like the regal, aloof daiyoukai he liked to embody.

The hanyou actually had to cover his mouth with his hand when Rin danced back around in front of Sesshomaru and beamed at her work. She clasped her hands together gleefully, smiling as bright as sunshine, and then she quickly leaned forward to kiss Sesshomaru on the cheek while he clearly struggled to return her enthusiasm.

Oh, but not even that could be better than telling Sesshomaru he looked _pretty_.

Pretty! Inuyasha's stomach was actually aching, he was trying so hard not to laugh. His ribs felt fit to burst. And through it all, Sesshomaru plainly swung back and forth between the desire to maintain his dignity and his refusal to embarrass Rin and take away that smile, only adding to Inuyasha's amusement.

Even as his eyes blurred with mirthful tears, the hanyou saw the way Sesshomaru's fingers flexed and then curled into his palms again, desperate to check the damage done to his hair, yet worried about Rin turning around as she ran off and being offended. Not wanting Sesshomaru to notice the flowers just yet, Inuyasha quickly took a deep breath, wiped his eyes on the back of his hand, and strolled out into view just before Rin disappeared into the village.

"It's a _pretty_ morning, isn't it?" he said cheerfully.

Sesshomaru immediately scowled at him, being more than sharp enough to catch the dig. "Indeed," he replied. "Even an irritant couldn't spoil it."

Inuyasha grinned unrepentently. "Y'know, I had no idea you enjoyed having your hair played with. Is your big secret out? Is it going to spoil your image if I tell everyone?"

Sesshomaru lifted an eyebrow. "Will it spoil yours if I reveal you enjoy having those fluffy ears of yours played with?"

Said ears flattened defensively. "What the hell are you talking about? I don't even like people touching my ears."

Sesshomaru merely smiled, feeling better now that he once again had the upper hand. "So you believe. I, however, know different."

"Yeah, well, whatever." Inuyasha didn't want to go there, absolutely not, and now he was annoyed because Sesshomaru had, yet again, managed to effortlessly turn things to his favour. Damn it. It was time to set things back on track.

He waved a hand at the flowery explosion that was Sesshomaru's hair. "Why do you let her do this stuff to you? The Sesshomaru _I_ knew would have rather died than lose even an ounce of dignity."

The smug humour fell away from the daiyoukai's face as a considering look swept across it instead. For a few moments, he didn't speak at all, merely stared out into the distance and over the village. Finally, just before the silence got to Inuyasha and he _had_ to say something to break it, Sesshomaru found his voice.

"I suppose the simple answer to that question would be that Rin is precious to me."

The hanyou's eyebrows lifted in surprise. That wasn't something he would have ever expected to hear from Sesshomaru, not even from a good version of him. But the simple sincerity with which it was said prevented Inuyasha from mocking him for it. Instead, he prompted, "Precious?"

"Yes," Sesshomaru agreed. "I have no doubt that Rin is the only thing that kept me here after our Inuyasha passed. He... he died in my arms, and while doing so, he asked that I protect our friends, protect the village. I would have honoured that promise regardless, but without Rin here, I would would have withdrawn from everyone into solitude, away from the memories. It would have been a lonely existence."

Inuyasha rocked on his feet a bit as he absorbed this information. He had to admit he could see it happening just that way. Sesshomaru - either of the ones he knew - wouldn't stick around just because he needed someone to lean on. He wouldn't even let anyone know he did. The stubborn independence was a trait apparently both Sesshomaru's shared. He could grudgindly admit, in that regard, they were pretty similar.

"The Sesshomaru I knew was like that," Inuyasha found himself saying. "He only cared about Rin. I think, anyway. Pretty sure he brought her back from the dead with Tenseiga, so that has to mean something. I'm not too sure about that, though, because he didn't exactly stop by to chew the fat and catch up on things."

The daiyoukai turned to look at him. "If it was true in your world, it would be something in common with this one. I, too, brought Rin back from the Netherworld with Tenseiga."

Inuyasha bit his lip a bit. "See, I'm not too sure it would be _exactly_ the same..."

"Why not? It sounds similar enough."

"Yeah... but I'm betting, since you've all known each other for a while, that... Koga's wolves weren't responsible for her dying in the first place?"

For the first time, Inuyasha saw what a truly shocked Sesshomaru looked like. His eyes widened and his jaw even slackened a little, leaving his mouth hanging partially open. "Koga? Koga's pack killed her?"

"I _think_ so. It was never admitted outright, but I noticed things, y'know? When we met Koga - which was after we started hunting Naraku - we found him after he'd slaughtered a village. There was a lot of blood, but I could pick out the scent of different people easy enough. I smelled her blood there - didn't realise it at first, but after seeing her a couple times, I realised where I knew the scent. There was a lot of it in the woods surrounding the village... and she was small. So when I saw her with - with the other Sesshomaru, not a mark on her... I had a good idea what it meant. Didn't say anything to the others, though. By that point, Koga was... sort of an ally, I guess, 'cause he hated Naraku as much of the rest of us and was head over heels for Kagome to boot. He'd sworn off killing humans, and that satisfied everyone else."

Inuyasha blew out a breath. "I suppose that's one story I shouldn't be telling everyone else, huh?"

"I can only concur," Sesshomaru agreed, his composure settling back into place.

The hanyou leaned his back against a nearby tree and peered up at a flock of birds winging across the sky. There would be a lot of stories like that one, he wagered. Memories that would shock or even haunt some of the people here, which meant he would always run the risk of saying something that would cause upset. Then again, he ran the same risk of upsetting himself with all the questions he asked; this world had its share of tragedies and not all the answers would be ones he wanted to hear.

"Guess I'm gonna have to be more careful about stuff like that," he said. "We've all got questions, but not all the answers are gonna be goods ones."

Sesshomaru didn't respond, but Inuyasha could feel his eyes on him. A few moments of this, and he got the urge to twitch, so he looked over to find Sesshomaru smiling. A small one, just a slight curve of the lips, but a smile nonetheless. One of his eyebrows hiked up almost to his hairline.

"What?"

"My apologies," Seshsomaru said, but the smile lingered. "It just brings me happiness and... comfort to see the similarities between yourself and the Inuyasha I knew."

It was a sentiment Inuyasha was familiar with, but one that surprised him, coming from Sesshomaru. "Where did that come from?"

"He could both be surprisingly considerate of others, just as you can," the daiyoukai explained. "Because of a rough childhood, the Inuyasha of this world found it difficult to place his trust in others, but once it was earned, it was never lost. Those who were graced with that trust, those who became his inner circle, were first and foremost in his mind. He could still be gruff and uncouth, but he was compassionate towards them in his own way, and we all understood. Even for those of us who did not initially start off in a favourable manner, like myself, he found it within him to open up, despite the many times he had been rejected in his life. From the way I have seen you behave since your arrival, I feel most if not all of this is true of you, as well."

Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably. Those were not qualities he saw in himself at all, and it worried him that others might start expecting to see them. To distract himself from the thought, he asked instead: "You and the other me didn't hit it off right away? With how everyone here talks about you, that's a little bit of a surprise. What did you do?"

Sesshomaru sighed quietly. "I was not kind to you in our first meeting. It's something I regret now, for I understand my reasons were petty and foolish."

"So what happened?" he asked again.

Sesshomaru was quiet a moment. "For you to understand why I acted as I did, it may perhaps be better to start at the beginning," he decided. "Come, sit with me. Please."

The hanyou heaved a sigh of his own. "That means this is going to be a long one... All right. Get it off your chest, I suppose."

Sesshomaru waited until Inuyasha was seated on a fallen over log opposite him before he began. He seemed to take a moment to steady himself before speaking.

"It would probably be best to start before Inuyasha's birth. Our father and I had, up until Inuyasha's mother caught his eye, been close. Closer, in fact, than most youkai and their progeny. It was always understood that I would one day succeed him, whether by force or otherwise, but it did not impact our every day lives... until he started pulling away. Looking back now, I can see quite clearly that I was... jealous, though at the time, I firmly believed I was disgusted and indignant that my father would lower himself in such a way, and that he would also discard me to do so. I was his son, his firstborn, his heir... and he would carelessly toss me aside to fraternise with a human woman?

"That feeling grew worse when the woman fell pregnant. I--"

"Her name was Izayoi," Inuyasha interjected flatly. "Not 'the woman'."

Sesshomaru held his hands up peaceably. "I'm sorry. I hadn't wanted to assume the names were the same. I wasn't trying to insult her or her memory."

Satisfied for now, Inuyasha hackled down and gestured for him to continue.

"Izayoi, as I said, fell pregnant. Father was ecstatic... I was mortified. It was clear the child would be hanyou, and I could only see that as a stain on father's legacy. I became terribly prejudiced toward Inuyasha before he had even taken his first breath; I truly hated him, I think, and that coloured every interaction I had with father until his birth. Our relationship crumbled. This led to a desire to take his seat of power and establish myself as Lord of the Western Lands, and I now believe even that was a pathetic cry for attention. If I could show him how powerful I had become, how well I had learned all the lessons he taught me, perhaps then I would become the closest person to him again.

"The night of Inuyasha's birth, I went to him, in an act of arrogance and bravado, to tell him that I had begun my conquest. I demanded he give me the Tetsusaiga, as my birthright. I could see that he was injured from his battle with the demon Ryukotsusei, and that no longer concerned me as once it would have. I had become single-minded in my focus, so much so that what I wanted was standing directly in front of me and I didn't even realise it.

"Father told me that Izayoi was in danger. Her family had discovered the father of her unborn child was youkai, and they had put her under heavy guard. It seemed they intended to wait for her to birth Inuyasha and then destroy him, thus purging what they preceived as evil from their home. They believed, as many do, that Izayoi had been manipulated and seduced against her will; it was beyond their comprehension that father cared for her deeply enough to be prepared to sacrifice his life for her."

Sesshomaru paused here, and Inuyasha could see his eyes had become shadowed. It didn't take a genius to see what was eating at him.

"You knew, though, didn't you?" the hanyou prompted.

Sesshomaru's eyes closed. "Yes, I knew. I could see it clearly in how resolutely he stood before me. Even as his blood stained the snow at his feet from a wound too deep to heal quickly, he was determined to go. I let him go and did nothing."

"You think you should have gone with him."

"No... I know I should have. However, I was stubborn, and so against the very notion of involving myself with Inuyasha or his mother that it didn't even occur to me. It was my father's affair, not mine. If I had only gone with him... things would have been very different today. If he had had me there to watch his back, he might have even been alive to greet you."

That... was an implication it would take a long time for Inuyasha to absorb. If a similar exchange had happened with the Sesshomaru of his world and their father... He didn't even want to think of it right now. But it _would_ be something he and his Sesshomaru needed to discuss, whether he liked it or not.

"So, what actually happened that night?"

"As I said, father was determined to go, and there was nothing I could or would say to stop him. He did, however, pause just long enough to try to teach me one, final lesson, one that I didn't even realise was a lesson until years later. He asked me if I had anyone in my life to protect. Of course, I did not, and even dismissed the very notion as foolish. What need did a powerful youkai like myself have for anyone else?

"Perhaps my answer was all he needed to know, for he left then. He assumed his true form, likely putting more strain on his already weakened body, and tore into the night at great speed. I cursed him for a fool and began the trek back to the Western Lands. Hours later, a retainer of my father, a flea by the name of Myoga, caught up to me. He begged me to return and aid my father.

"I had been unsettled since my father left, but too stubborn to turn around on my own, so this gave me the much needed impetus to return. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late."

"He was already dead?" Inuyasha asked quietly.

"No, he was alive, but... barely. He didn't even have the strength to lift his head, and it was not surprising. I could see the trail of blood he'd left behind as he dragged himself out of the burning mansion. I don't believe he could even truly see me as I knelt beside him, but he gripped my hand, and he told me what happened. He said that, when he arrived, he heard Izayoi crying out in labour, and he knew he had to hurry, but his injury slowed him. By the time he reached them, it was too late. Her family, in desperation, had killed both Izayoi and Inuyasha and he was forced to use the Tenseiga to bring them back. Someone had set the mansion ablaze, and he covered their escape.

"He begged me then, Inuyasha. My proud father begged me to go after Izayoi and protect them both in his stead, and I said nothing as his last breath left him because I didn't want to. I didn't care what happened to Izayoi and her child. At least I can say of myself that I tried to use the Tenseiga to bring him back, but the Tenseiga is not a sword that will work for just anyone. I lacked the necessary qualities to wield it then. It felt much like a simple, iron sword in my grip, without a hint of the true power it wields."

Sesshomaru paused then to close his hand over the hilt of the Tenseiga, safely secured in his obi; it seemed to steady him enough to finish saying what needed to be said.

"Youkai do not bury their dead; to prevent his body being mauled by scavengers, I burned it. Then... I left. I did not do as he had requested and see to Inuyasha's safety. Instead, I went to attend to my own interests, consolidating my power in the Western Lands. I did not see Inuyasha again for seven years."

Inuyasha nodded absently. From his own limited knowledge of the circumstances surrounding his birth, this seemed to fit well. The age at which he met the Sesshomaru of his world seemed approximately the same as well. If it wasn't such a serious subject, he might even find it interesting how certain events seemed fated, no matter how they were reached, almost like intertwining threads intersecting at significant events in their lives. He imagined Kagome would have been able to explain it better using one of those theories her future scholars had.

"It was by mere chance that our paths happened to cross," Sesshomaru continued. "I was tracking a youkai I was of a mind to kill when, suddenly, there he was. I think we were equally surprised, but I knew who Inuyasha was the instant I saw him. There was no mistaking the colour of his hair and his eyes, his age, even the scent of inuyoukai blended with that of human."

This was it. This was the part that intrigued Inuyasha most. If this Sesshomaru had been as cruel and callous as his own brother, he had no idea how that relationship would have been mended. The fear, the hate, that had been instilled in his tiny body by the almost careless acid-tipped backhand he had received from Sesshomaru that fateful day had still not totally faded centuries later. There would never be reconciliation with the Sesshomaru of his world, and he thought both of them preferred it that way.

"At first, I was speechless. I had never intended to see Inuyasha again, let alone so soon, and yet there he was, standing right before me, looking confused and wary and just a little bit hopeful. Then he asked me a single, innocent question."

Inuyasha got a sinking feeling in his stomach. He had a pretty good idea what question that was...

"He asked me... if I was family. I don't care to repeat the things I said to him, but they were far from kind. I chased him away from me with all manner of threats."

Inuyasha couldn't help cringing. Oh, yeah, he remembered asking that stupid question. He'd been confused as hell stumbling across Sesshomaru that first time. Couldn't figure out why his nose told him this youkai was familiar, but his eyes told him he was a stranger. But his mother had spoken of his father, how his strange colouring came from him, and had blurted out the first stupid thing that had come to mind. He'd regretted it within moments, for many reasons.

Sesshomaru, however, noticed his expression, and made one of his own. "I told you it was unpleasant. I apologise if it's hard to hear from my perspective."

The hanyou blinked. "What? No. No, no, that's not it." He blew out a breath that made his bangs flutter. "I just remember asking the same question, and it's kinda... embarrassing. If that Inuyasha was anything like me, he just kinda... blurted it out without thinking. I, at least, couldn't understand why you smelled like I knew you but I'd never met you before. I'd never smelt another youkai like you before, plus we looked vaguely similar. What you did probably just pissed him off more than anything. I got worse than that from the Sesshomaru in my world."

"Worse?" Sesshomaru asked warily. "What did he do?"

Inuyasha shrugged awkwardly. This was one of those things, he thought. A question with an answer Sesshomaru wouldn't like.

"To put it simply, he backhanded me. If my mind had caught up faster than my mouth, I might have noticed the look of pure and utter loathing he was giving me and run instead. But he knocked me clear off my feet and into a nearby tree, hard enough that the entire side of my face felt numb - that kind of numb you get when the pain is too much to even understand. And while I sat on the ground, reeling from the shock, he told me, in a cool, calm voice, that if he ever saw me again, he'd kill me, and then he just walked away. That was when I ran, as fast as I could, until I couldn't smell any trace of him and the pain started to throb. I found a stream to look at myself and that was when the fear really set in - it'd just been shock before then, y'know? But when I saw the burn marks on my face from that nasty acid stuff, the black eye, the split lip, I knew he'd meant what he said. It took a long time for me to even figure out who he was, let alone understand why he hated me so much."

Sesshomaru had gone completely still, so still one might have thought he was a statue. Inuyasha could tell he was struggling to absorb and accept this revelation, and waved a hand dismissively. "Look, I got over it. It was a good lesson, honestly. I stayed alive because that woke me up, made me realise I had to be tough and I shouldn't ever let my guard down. No one was gonna take it easy on me just 'cause I was a kid. Even the humans didn't. I'm not afraid of Sesshomaru anymore and haven't been for a long time. I always gave as good as I got after that, no matter what he tried to do to me. I cut off his arm. You do remember that, right? So you don't have to be guilty for what another version of you did, damn it."

"You were a child, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru stressed. "And he did not check his blows in the slightest. What was he thinking?"

"I was an eyesore," Inuyasha explained with a shrug. "He wanted me out of the way. If he'd thought more of me, he might have even killed me there and then. That has always been Sesshomaru's attitude, though. He cuts down whatever's in his path, be it youkai or human, and he holds grudges until the end of days. You wanna know the whole reason he decided to make Naraku his enemy? Naraku decided to use him in a plot to kill me, then discarded him as soon as the plan fell through. It pissed Sesshomaru off to be someone else's tool, and he decided from that point on to hunt Naraku down even if it took forever. He wasn't trying to do the right thing or help anyone but himself."

"I had thought confessing my own transgressions would be hard enough," the daiyuokai commented after a moment. "But hearing even worse about myself is... difficult."

"It's not you," Inuyasha said, voice thick with exasperation. "It's an entirely different person. Just like me and your Inuyasha - not the same people. I'm sure he did things I wouldn't do and vice versa. So why the hell would you blame yourself for what the Sesshomaru in my world did? That's stupid as shit."

"An interesting way to put it," Sesshomaru said dryly, lifting an eyebrow, "but you are right."

"Damn right I am. And what I want to know now is: how the hell did you and the other me end up travelling together if it started off like that?"

"Well, I didn't see Inuyasha again for more than ten years. I was, as before, busy bringing the Western Lands under my thumb. Many of the youkai under my father's rule wanted to challenge his whelp, as they called me, to see if I was worthy. It was a few years after the encounter that I even discovered Izayoi had alreay passed away when we met. I hadn't realised I had chased off a small child, now an orphan, with my callous words.

"I won't go into detail of the epiphanies I had in the years that followed, but suffice to say I realised the hate I had for Inuyasha was... baseless. I blamed him for things he had no part in purely because he reminded me of things I would rather forget, and it wasn't fair. I had left him to fend for himself when my father had asked me to protect him, and I didn't even know where he was or if he was alive.

"I went looking for him, when I was finally able to swallow my pride and my stubbornness. Inuyasha had moved on from where I found him, but I was undeterred. I had not completely forsaken either stubbornness or pride when I managed to track Inuyasha down, however; I batted his crude attacks away like irritatating insects, and I did not initially apologise for my earlier actions. I don't know if I truly had a plan for Inuyasha before we met again, but after seeing him like that, almost feral, I decided it was my duty to train him - and that only. I determined that I would fulfil my father's wishes if I taught Inuyasha to defend himself as an inuyoukai, and then I would be able to leave him again with my conscience clear.

"I browbeat Inuyasha with the necessity of this, the logic of it. And, cautiously, he eventually agreed. Of course, I didn't even consider the possiblity then, but Inuyasha was far more intelligent and shrewd than I ever gave him credit for."

The hanyou's fluffy ears perked up then. "Oh, really? You thought he was an idiot?"

Sesshomaru managed a faint smile. "No, not exactly that. I just looked down on him in every way - a rather telling sign of my arrogance. Inuyasha was only half the demon I was, literally. In my mind, that translated to all aspects of him. Everything was inferior. The fact that Inuyasha was half-feral at the time only compounded the idea. I did not realise that his time spent alone - something I did not, at the time, take any responsibility for, despite my revelations - had made him cunning. Having never experienced anything close to it, it was simply beyond my scope to comprehend. I did not realise having survived since infancy on his own meant Inuyasha was not only smart, but also had an indomitable will, a certain tenaciousness and grit. And he was easily as stubborn as I was, which I found out very soon after.

"Naturally, we clashed; our personalities were different on a fundamental level. Hardly a day passed without us shouting at each other, one of us storming off or threatening to kill the other... but somehow, we didn't burn that bridge. Gradually, as one might expect, the things we kept hidden from each other initially - our thoughts, our histories, even our feelings over certain matters - came out, whether intentionally or not. We grew to... understand each other, and accept the faults we saw that had once seemed insurmountable. We stayed together for many years, skirting human settlements, taking our time getting to know each other.

"I learned a great many things about myself during that time, and I like to think Inuyasha did, too. I discarded the notion that I was merely fulfilling my duty within that first year, as travelling with Inuyasha slowly assuaged what I began to understand was guilt. I threw away my plans to completely dominate the Western Lands; some of it remains unclaimed even today, hundreds of years later. I had thought I wanted absolute conquest, to have all I surveyed beneath my yoke... yet by travelling with Inuyasha, I came to enjoy the challenge he presented. No one else dared talk back to me, or in such a disrespectful way. No one else would go nose-to-nose with me in an argument - or even dare argue to begin with. Never before had I felt myself so suffused with hot rage, and thought it may sound strange, I came to enjoy that animation and energy he brought to me."

Inuyasha gave Sesshomaru a bland stare. "Yeah," he said dryly. "That does sound really weird."

The daiyoukai laughed, inclining his head in acknowledgement. "Strange though it is, I believe Inuyasha felt the same. Why else would he always come back even after storming off? Kagome had her own thoughts on the matter. What was the phrase she used...? Ah. 'Opposites attract', I believe it was. It was true, in our case, as we eventually found out."

Here, the hanyou began to squirm internally. He knew where this story was going to go from here on out, and he really, really didn't want to hear about it. Probably not ever. But when Sesshomaru had just sat there, and spoke more than Inuyasha had ever heard him speak over the course of his three hundred years of life, let alone in one go, confessing all manner of things that clearly still caused him some amount of distress even now, it made him feel like a bit of an asshole to tell him story time was over because the rest was going to creep him the fuck out.

Still, it had to be done. Inuyasha raised a hand to stop him before Sesshomaru could begin again. "Listen... Look... I really... appreciate you setting it all straight for me, but... but the rest of that... I just don't think I'm ready to, y'know... hear it... so..." Inuyasha risked a glance at Sesshomaru, then narrowed his eyes. "You already know exactly what I'm going to say, don't you?"

The smile that had been forming on the daiyoukai's face only grew, and the mirth almost sparkled in his eyes. Yeah, damn right he knew. But before Inuyasha could tear strips off him for it, the smell of cooking meat floated in on a breeze. Almost in sync, both inuyoukai paused to scent the air. The midday meal was close to being prepared.

Sesshomaru rose to his feet fluidly. "That would be our cue to return to the village," he said. "Come, Inuyasha, before they send for us."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and climbed to his feet, taking the opportunity to indulge in a long, long stretch to get the kinks out of his back. Then he trotted to catch up with Sesshomaru, who was already disappearing into the trees ahead. He folded his arms and tucked his hands into his sleeves, then glared ahead of him as he walked. He was still ticked off about earlier.

He managed to walk an entire minute in silence before bringing it up. "You knew exactly what I was trying to say," he said accusingly. "And you let me carry on anyway."

"I knew," Sesshomaru agreed pleasantly. "It was rather endearing the way you were trying to say it without offending me, so I thought I would let you continue."

"You know what? You're still actually kind of an asshole."

Almost lazily, Sesshomaru's hand batted Inuyasha with enough force to send him toppling into a nearby bush. Inuyasha's defence for falling - and also for making a loud squawking noise of surprise as he did - was that he hardly expected Sesshomaru to do something so... so _playful_ , because that was the look on his face when Inuyasha finally managed to claw his way out of the bush. That, and smugness.

Still, unpreparedness didn't mean Inuyasha wasn't willing to respond in kind. "Oh, it is _on_ now," he declared, teeth bared in challenge.

Ten minutes later, the two of them disturbed the relative quiet of the village as they emerged out of the trees, still bickering, with Inuyasha decidedly more sour, as he had yet to manage to push Sesshomaru into any kind of foliage. The bastard was solid as an oak when he wanted to be.

Finally giving in - at least for now - Inuyasha folded his arms with a huff. It was then that he became aware of the giggling and pointing that had begun with their arrival. Sesshomaru seemed to notice it, too, but instead of being concerned, he smiled. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow, having a good idea why everyone was laughing.

"What're you so happy about?"

"I believe everyone is happy to see some semblance of normalcy between us," the daiyoukai explained. "Even if they are having fun at our expense."

Inuyasha failed to hold in his snort. "No, dumbass, that's not why they're laughing. They're laughing at _you_."

"Me? You were acting just as infantile as I."

"Oh, but I don't look so, so pretty with my hair like that," Inuyasha replied, raising his voice as high as it would go and reaching over to pluck a flower out of Sesshomaru's hair, twirling it between his fingers.

The hanyou took immense pleasure watching Sesshomaru's attention focus on it, then the dawning look of comprehension and horror that spread over his face. As the daiyoukai hurriedly dragged the huge braid he had evidently forgotten about over his shoulder and hastily started pulling the rest of the flowers out of it, Inuyasha walked away, laughing loudly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here! And damn, is it long. Like, three times as long as a normal post for me. I honestly considered splitting this into two, maybe even three posts, but I couldn't find a place where I liked the cut and it felt better as one big thing, anyway. It's Sesshomaru's first emotional moment, where he tells us his feels, and he deserved to be allowed to get it out in one go.
> 
> That being said, I really hope you don't expect other updates of this size in future. >_> I won't rule them out, but I have no plans for them, either. Back to my batting average of 2k words!
> 
> The plot for things and the order I do them in are still pretty fluid for this one, so do you guys has any questions? Anything you want to know like RIGHT NAO in terms of what's been going on in this world? Lemme know and I'll see if I can't work it in to next time. x3 Either way, I hope you've enjoyed this mammoth post!


	17. Chapter 17

Inuyasha was facing a predicament. He was smart and practical enough to know that this situation was entirely his own doing, but also stubborn and proud enough to not just simply be able to _go back_.  
  
The hanyou sighed to himself and put his hands behind his head, using them to cushion the back of his head as he leant it against the trunk of the tree, closing his eyes. To the casual observer, he may have looked peaceful, relaxed, but the locks of dark hair spilling over his shoulders meant that would never be the case.  
  
He knew, he damn well knew, that he was being stupid to spend this night outside the village, away from those who would help him deal with any youkai who might stumble upon him, if any had been stupid or brave enough to get close to a settlement like the village. With Miroku and Sango with him, he could have slept through it, had he been so inclined. Just the two of them would have been enough, and he wasn't so helpless himself, despite how vulnerable the night of the new moon made him feel.  
  
That was without counting Sesshomaru. It would be a very reckless and foolhardy lesser demon who thought attacking an area saturated with the youki of a daiyoukai was a good idea. But then again, he reasoned, he'd done it himself in the past. The more powerful a youkai happened to be, the less inclined they were to share territory. That meant one youkai had to maintain large swathes of the countryside... and even the most powerful of demons couldn't be in multiple places at once. If a less powerful demon was smart and quiet enough, they could slip in and out again before being noticed - or caught, at least.  
  
Inuyasha hunched his shoulders. Maybe he _should_ go back. But he was at least half a mile from the village, having been terrorized out of safer territory by the little pains in the ass the women called their children, and he didn't much enjoy the thought of stumbling through the dark to get there. He was far from helpless as a human, but compared to the strength he was used to having, he felt like an infant in battle. On top of that, his senses were so dulled that it sometimes felt like he was losing them entirely.  
  
It was frustrating, sometimes unnerving, and not something anyone he knew could relate to. While his friends catered to it, they never _really_ understood his need to be vigilant on the moonless night.  
  
It was that same vigilance that likely saved him from grievous bodily harm as a noise reached him from below. Peering down, he made out the shape of a demon creeping closer and closer to the tree, faintly illuminated by what little light the stars produced. Bug-like, shaped like a mantis; small eyes, a kind of animal cunning in them that Inuyasha really didn't like. His hand shifted toward Tetsusaiga's hilt -  
  
A clumsy and poorly executed roll off the branch was all that saved Inuyasha from being hit by the ball of green goo that came flying at him. A lesson learned in childhood, after a nearly disastrous escape attempt and a broken arm: never climb too high to get down quickly. He absorbed and ignored the shocks that went racing up his legs from the sudden impact with the ground and unsheathed Tetsusaiga.  
  
He could hear the bark above him sizzling as the acid ate through it. Shit. This thing had a decent arsenal of weaponry; corrosive spit, deadly mandibles, and front limbs that better resembled serrated blades. What did he have? A rusty sword and sheer stubbornness. They weren't impossible odds, at least.  
  
Inuyasha had just braced himself to launch an attack when a sudden burst of youki hit him from behind, powerful enough to send even his weak senses reeling. The next few seconds felt hours long as all other thought shut down. A blur travelled past him too fast to make out any sort of shape; all that reached him were the words that blared in his mind in time with his suddenly racing heart.  
  
 _Fast. Deadly. Can't run. Have to try. GO!_  
  
An inhuman shriek chased those thoughts and Inuyasha stumbled backwards, his back hitting a low hanging tree branch. He shoved at it mindlessly, trying to get past, until a single word cut through.  
  
"Inuyasha."  
  
He recognised the voice even before he managed to bring his brother into focus. The hanyou's body reacted to the presence of Sesshomaru in a confused, panicked sort of fashion: he felt at the same time relief and dread; he wanted to collapse and run as fast as his legs could carry him; he felt equal parts certain of both his death and his safety. His heart still hammered against his rib cage loud enough that he was certain Sesshomaru could hear it clear as day.  
  
The crumpled remains of the mantis youkai dropped carelessly from the daiyoukai's hand, forgotten, as his nostrils flared. His sharp amber eyes darted around the trees, examining every twig, every leaf.  
  
"Inuyasha, what has you so --?" The hanyou saw the myriad of emotions run over Sesshomaru's face briefly before he schooled them once more. "My apologies. I did not think before I acted. I will retreat." He turned stiffly away from Inuyasha.  
  
If nothing else, Inuyasha recovered quickly. He'd have been killed a long time ago, if he didn't. His rational mind had caught up with pure instinct and he knew exactly what was going on in Sesshomaru's stupid head. The big idiot thought Inuyasha was scared of him... and while that wasn't entirely untrue, it wasn't exactly true, either, damn it.  
  
"Wait!" he said, stepping forward and flinging his hand out. "Don't you pull that disappearing crap on me. I know you're just going to be hanging out in the woods like some big weirdo until dawn."  
  
Sesshomaru stopped, as planned, but his gaze tracked down. Without thinking, Inuyasha followed his attention, and came to the alarming realisation that he had grabbed Sesshomaru's sleeve like a needy woman or demanding child. Hastily, he dropped the silk and cleared his throat.  
  
"You do not want me to go." It wasn't quite a question, but those piercing golden eyes searched his face nonetheless. The hanyou resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably on his feet. "Yet you were just --"  
  
"Don't even finish that," Inuyasha interrupted, waving that away impatiently. "Whatever I was just, it wasn't because of _you_ , specifically. I had no idea you were there, Sesshomaru. Then suddenly you were, and I couldn't even tell it was you. Couldn't even see you. It all happened so fast. You were just... rage and death incarnate."  
  
"I believe I overreacted to the situation. I had no reason to assume you could not handle yourself."  
  
Again, Inuyasha waved it away. "Any other night... yeah, I'd probably be pissed by it. Tonight, no grudges."  
  
Sesshomaru's shoulders relaxed by a few degrees. "You are certain you're not putting yourself out, allowing me to stay with you?"  
  
"I'm not that nice," the hanyou replied with a shrug. "Look, I'm not gonna lie, there's a part of me that's struggling to accept you being anywhere near me on this night. Dunno when that'll change, if ever. But I've thought about it enough to realise this isn't gonna be your first time seeing me as a human. The other Inuyasha... even if the time hadn't been the same, he'd have still become human at some point."  
  
"It is the same night. That was why I came here. You truly want me to stay?"  
  
Inuyasha paused trying to stretch a kink out of his neck. "Well, I didn't exactly say _that_. But sure, fuck it, why not. At least with you around, nothing's gonna try and take a chunk out of me before dawn. I can even make a fire."  
  
While the hanyou busied himself doing just that, Sesshomaru remained where he was, watching him. After a few moments, Inuyasha glanced at him and sighed. The daiyoukai was so still, he didn't even appear to be breathing. "You know, this'd go quicker if the one who can actually see what he's doing decided to help."  
  
Sesshomaru came to life then, like a statue out of one of those fairy tales Kagome had told to Sango. He appeared almost sheepish, but came to Inuyasha's side. A fire soon warmed the small clearing and Inuyasha sat himself down beside it. It was a rarity he got to enjoy something like this on the night of the new moon, so he closed his eyes and soaked in the warmth.  
  
He was vaguely surprised when Sesshomaru sat down behind him, so that they were back to back. Being warmed from both sides, it was difficult to find a reason to complain, but he gave it his best shot.  
  
"What the hell, Sesshomaru? You're supposed to sit around the fire, not around the hanyou."  
  
"You know very well I do not feel the cold as you do this night. The light, however, does hinder my visual range."  
  
Inuyasha could have pointed out that Sesshomaru could have sat literally anywhere else facing away from the fire, but decided to leave it be. It wasn't unpleasant.  
  
Instead, he scoffed. "Yeah, like anything's going to get anywhere near here without you sensing it. And that's only if it's stupid enough to try after feeling your youki."  
  
"Are you attempting to flatter me?"  
  
"You're flattering yourself if you think I am," Inuyasha retorted, and was pleased with the comeback. "I'm just pointing out a fact, and the fact is, your youki is like a death knell that sends lesser demons scurrying for their hidey holes. Used to make me sweat a little, too, especially after I stopped travelling alone."  
  
He didn't hear Sesshomaru sigh, but felt it through his back. "If it makes you feel better, I was mostly pissed off whenever I felt it."  
  
"It does... somewhat."  
  
"Look, you need to stop this. I'm never gonna know what makes the Sesshomaru where I come from so different from you. He's never gonna sit down with me and talk about it. So I'm trying not to let it piss me off anymore that he's such a bastard and just... letting it go."  
  
"How magnanimous of you," Sesshomaru said drily.  
  
Inuyasha "accidentally" elbowed him. "Would you rather I hate you for what the other Sesshomaru did? I can do that. There's plenty to be pissy about."  
  
"Do enlighten me, Inuyasha." The sarcasm in his tone was one of those things, Inuyasha decided.  
  
"Gladly. For starters, it's a load of shit that you can fly."  
  
There was a brief pause while Sesshomaru digested this. "That is your main cause for ire?" he said incredulously. "The ability to fly?"  
  
"Yes!" the hanyou agreed. "It's not enough that you can make this acid shit that can eat through metal? And hanyous, for that matter. That little whip thing you do is bullshit and hurts like a bitch, and you are _so_ cheap with it, and if those things aren't enough, you're ridiculously strong and fast. On top of all that, you can _fly_? Where did that even _come_ from? Dogs can't fly, Sesshomaru."  
  
"Evidently, dog demons can," Sesshomaru deadpanned. "However, from that perspective, perhaps I can see something of a point."  
  
"Why do you even walk anywhere ever?"  
  
Clearly not having been prepared for this line of questioning, the daiyoukai took a moment to formulate an answer. "I suppose the simplest answer to the question would be that it expends more energy than simply walking. I use it only when necessary and have always done so. When I travel, it is rare that I must do so with urgency; often, I don't even have a destination in mind. Traversing the skies makes tracking a far more difficult task than it should be. I could go on, but I believe that suffices for now."  
  
Inuyasha's eyes had been rolling into the back of his head in boredom from the far too analytical explanation and he was extremely eager to agree with that sentiment. However, that didn't mean he was willing to let the subject go entirely.  
  
"It just seems unfair," he said, almost sulkily. "I've got inuyoukai blood and I don't get any of that."  
  
"Actually..." Sesshomaru seemed almost hesitant. "Inuyasha learned how to produce a naturally occurring and quite potent venom of his own."  
  
The hanyou's back went ramrod straight. "Are you shitting me?! How in the hell did he learn that and I didn't?"  
  
"My guess would be your differing circumstances," Sesshomaru explained. "Just because you are inuyoukai does not mean you are naturally gifted. As with all things related to combat, they must be learned. I learned from father... whereas you learned from necessity and your will to survive, thus your combat is different from mine. You were not trained by the Sesshomaru of your own world, but I trained the Inuyasha of this world. With time, his youki developed and grew stronger."  
  
Sesshomaru's fingers tapped the sheath of the Tetsusaiga, which ran almost parallel to one of his thighs. "I believe you may have hindered yourself by coming to rely on the Tetsusaiga's power as well. Since acquiring it, you have had to depend on your own physical abilities less, correct? I would assume you thought you had reached the full potential you were able after so many years, and thus any development of your youki ceased."  
  
Inuyasha chewed the inside of his cheek as he mulled it over. It made sense and there was no denying it. Maybe he _did_ rely on Tetsusaiga's might over his own. And yeah, no doubt it had felt like he hit a ceiling with what his youki could do for him. He'd never been told otherwise, had no idea how to summon anything... dormant in himself.  
  
"What a crock of shit," he decided. "Just because my brother is a colossal asshole, I miss out? Typical of him. What a selfish prick."  
  
"A well-deserved sentiment, by all accounts." There were a few moments of silence while Inuyasha mentally cursed the other Sesshomaru up, down, left, right and backwards, then Sesshomaru spoke up again. "I could try to help you learn how to better channel your youki, if you so desire."  
  
The hanyou snapped back to attention. "You could? You could teach me?"  
  
"I could try," Sesshomaru explained. "You are older than Inuyasha was when I instructed him, more set in your ways. We also don't know how long you'll... I could, in theory, teach you methods to begin strengthening and controlling your youki properly. At the very least, these will form the foundations upon which future successes are built."  
  
Inuyasha had to admit, it sounded good. To have a better chance at standing toe to toe with his brother back home would be incredible. To see the look on his face when he suddenly had a gut full of acid. Just to feel more powerful, more assured of himself... something both Sesshomaru's seemed to have a knack for. It was a little bit terrifying to be confronted with that much power, and then know he could make himself doubly dangerous simply by unsheathing his sword. Inuyasha wouldn't mind a bit of that for himself, if he could get it.  
  
"When can we start?" he asked, more eagerly than he'd intended. "What about dawn? What will I have to do? Are there any hidden catches?"  
  
"Catches? Whatever do you mean?"  
  
"Like... I'm not gonna have to be... you know... touchy-feely or anything, right?"  
  
"Absolutely. One embrace per lesson should suffice to start."  
  
For a moment, Inuyasha's mouth hung open. He hadn't _really_ suspected anything of the sort, but...  
  
"You extorting bastard!" he exploded, spinning around to face Sesshomaru. "I am out of --!"  
  
He had been attempting to stand, with the aim of storming off in a huff, but Sesshomaru was fast as lightning and before he could even get to his knees, an arm caught him and dragged him in until he had his back against Sesshomaru's chest, Sesshomaru's legs bent and angled away to the side, and his arm like an immobilizing seal across his torso. He couldn't have moved for anything, but that didn't stop him trying.  
  
Ignoring his frankly pathetic escape attempts, Sesshomaru calmly spoke above his shoulder, alarmingly close to Inuyasha's ear. "It was a jest, you foolish hanyou. There is no need to stomp off into the night."  
  
The insult was said with such affection that Inuyasha couldn't really find it in him to be offended. All he managed was a bit of ineffectual blustering before he settled and let his arms flop to his side from where they had been trying to pry Sesshomaru's free.  
  
"Oh, yeah?" he muttered sullenly. "Then why are you still holding me, you bastard?"  
  
"Hm..." The daiyoukai's chin rested lightly on his shoulder and brought his face even closer to Inuyasha's ear, so he felt the vibrations from his speech. "How about we consider it an advanced payment for as many lessons as you require?"  
  
It took every ounce of willpower Inuyasha had not to shiver as Sesshomaru murmured in his ear. As it was, he could literally feel the flush flare across his cheeks, stretching back far enough to make his ears burn. He tried to fold his arms, just for something to do with them, realised just a moment too late it would all but mean cuddling Sesshomaru's arm and dropped them awkwardly to his sides again. He began fiddling with twigs on the ground.  
  
"Fine," he said gruffly, clearing his throat when his voice sounded a touch strained. "But if anyone hears about this, you're dead. You hear me? Dead."  
  
"I understand," Sesshomaru said. Inuyasha decided to ignore the fact that he sounded amused rather than concerned.  
  
Silence descended then as each retreated to their own thoughts. Minutes turned into hours and Inuyasha managed to almost forget he was being held by Sesshomaru of all people, thus it was a surprise to him when he suddenly let out a great big yawn and realised his eyes had closed some time before. He shifted a little more upright, blinking at the diminished fire.  
  
"You are tired?" Sesshomaru asked quietly.  
  
"No," Inuyasha immediately denied, then realised how much like a child he sounded. He scowled at the fire.  
  
"I see," the daiyoukai replied, and his amused tone told Inuyasha he'd heard it, too. The hanyou's scowl only deepened.  
  
It was most definitely true, despite his denial. Warmed by both the fire and Sesshomaru at his back, having stayed awake for most of the night in a weaker human form, he did feel very drowsy. He always felt tired on this night, but it was usually easily ignored in favour of other priorities, like surviving. But this particular night, those concerns had been brushed aside.  
  
The next time his eyes closed, they didn't open again.  
  
Hours later, Sesshomaru, who needed very little sleep to sustain himself, watched the dawn's light crest the canopy of the trees and spill into their little clearing. As his gaze turned downwards toward the head of the hanyou resting peacefully against his chest, he watched as the black strands of hair suddenly shone like brightest silver and the velvety-soft canine ears poked through.  
  
He smiled, utterly at peace in that moment. He would indulge himself for a short while longer before allowing Inuyasha to wake up free of their embrace. But this night he would remember for a long time to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter of Through The Well is a surprise dedication to the lovely Solarift for her birthday!
> 
> She's an amazing friend and fangirl, and to be perfectly honest, this fic wouldn't be where it is today if not for her. Even if I had continued it this far, I doubt it would have the form it currently has without her input, the giddy late night chats where we bounced crazy ideas off each other, and her genuine rabid fangirl enthusiasm for this story.
> 
> Solar has been through a rough time this past 12 months and I only hope I've been there for her in all the ways she's needed me, that I've managed to make her laugh when she's wanted to cry, and that she knows just how much I love her.
> 
> Finally, I want all you guys who follow her to go show your appreciation for her writing and how much you miss her InuSess fics (she posts predominately on FF.net and y!Gal under the names Demitria Miriam and cuppycake, respectively)! And any of you who haven't read her stories, I suggest you go check them out right now!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I love you guys.<3


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